Tabula Rasas
by Nadie2
Summary: Sam and Jack wake up on an unfamilar planet with no memory, suplies or clothes, and with a desperate fear of the other one's death and the firm knowlege that they belong together.
1. Day 1

AU story that takes place after "Frozen" in season six.

**Things in bold are Jack's memories/dreams.**

_Things in italics are Sam's memories/dreams._

_**Bold and italics are when they are thinking the same thoughts together.**_

Day 1

He pulls her tighter to him in his sleep. Every inch of her pressed against every inch of him, arms entwined. They are fitting together like pieces of a puzzle. The motion causes her to wake up. Her eyes flutter open, and she sees his face, so close to hers she can't focus on it, but she knows it is his. Comforted she lets her eyes shut again and leans against his muscular body. She can hear him breathing, and that gives her great comfort. She's surprised to hear him breathing. Surprised and relieved. She puts her head against his chest, and his breathing lulls her back to sleep.

A breeze hits the bare flesh of his back. He shivers. Why is it cold? He peals and eye open. He sees the trees swaying in the breeze. He hates trees. Where is he? He feels like he should be doing something, but what? She shifts beside him. She's moving? She's alive? Why does it surprise him that she's alive? Hasn't she always been alive?

God she's beautiful. Short blond hair. Legs that go on forever. And the naked in between is pretty amazing too.

Her eyes flutter open. She smiles at him. She opens her mouth to say his name. But she doesn't know it. Why is she laying next to a (gorgeous) naked man whose name escapes her? And why is she outside?

She sits up. She pulls away from him. She draws her knees up in front of her to cover as much as possible, "I'm sorry…this is quite strange…but who are you?" she asks.

He turns his head toward her. He opens his mouth to answer, but finds he doesn't know. He shrugs. "I don't suppose you know your own name?" he asks.

She shakes her head. Something tells her she should be more worried about her lack of memory than she is. Somehow the only thing she can manage to worry about is him. "Are you ok?" she asks.

A grin crosses his face, "I'm better than ok, I'm with you" he says. Then his face becomes worried, "I…I think I had a dream that you died."

"I…think I had the same dream about you," she says. She wonders if she should maintain her distance. But his man is just as confused as she is, and she did just wake up naked next to him. She feels like they belong together, belong to one another. She reaches out, and touches his chest. The firm muscles grow taunt beneath her fingers, but that isn't what she's feeling for. She has to feel his heartbeat. She has to convince herself that he is alive.

"That isn't fair," he says leveling his eyes on her. Those deep brown eyes feel like they are melting her soul, "I can't feel your heartbeat."

"Oh, can't you?" she asks playfully.

His eyes suddenly smolder with fire and passion, "You giving me permission to touch your chest?" he asks.

"Why are we out in the open?" she asks concerned.

"Why don't we have any clothes?" he asks equally concerned.

"Oh, I think you can figured that one out," she says standing up, and helping him to his feet.

"Don't know why you'd want ME," he says. She remembers he has a self-defeating sense of humor.

She considers him carefully before she says, "Because I'm in love with you, you idiot." She is certain of it. She doesn't know much right now, but she does know that.

Did he know that before? He must have. It feels very familiar, but also very new. I grins from ear to ear, "Well, there is that," he replies. He knows he loves her too. But he isn't going to say it quite yet. He's saving it.

He has a strange sense of humor. She thinks he likes it.

They scan the surroundings. The area is forested with many trees, they almost, but not quite recognize. They are only about ten feet from a river which flows at a medium to slow current with clear water which would reach no farther than their shoulders if they stood in the deepest part. They don't know what they are looking for, but they seem to know when they find it. He starts gathering fire wood and dry leaves for kindling. She finds some flint. She starts working on a fire. He finds large logs that he sets on one of their ends. They are going to make them into large bowls to boil water in.

"What happened to us?" she asks.

"It wasn't a head injury," he says.

"How do you know that?" she asks thought she isn't for a minute doubting him.

"I think I've had a lot of head injuries," he says puzzled.

"Clearly," she says dryly. But none the less she moves toward him. She fingers his skull. She finds an old wound, traces it with her fingertip. Her focus is only on the wound.

His is not. She is standing and he is sitting which leaves him eyes level with her chest. He pulls away. "We'd better make clothes," he says clearing his throat gruffly.

"Water, food, shelter and weapons, first," she says.

He knows it makes sense, but it is going to make things harder for him. He puts his hand to her chest above the area he wants to place it on, to feel her heartbeat. To assure himself she's alive. He wonders why they are both so obsessed with the life of the other.

"Sunscreen…" she says carefully, "Mud," they are near a river at least, and the banks are covered in a thick claylike mud. Perfect for a survival layer of sunscreen. He looks away as she layers it on herself, and adds a layer to himself.

It's good she thought of it, the days are warm on this planet. As soon as he thinks that phrase it pulls him up short and makes him wonder at why he said it. Is there more than one planet? He doesn't know the answer. But there must be, because there doesn't seem to be anyone around but them, and there must be other people. Besides he seems to remember a yellow sun close. Not this more distant orangish one of this world.

He scraps a knock into a piece of wood they've designated as calendar. He pulls her close to him for warmth. "Good thing you got that fire going," he says. It took her most of the day. She had to used two pieces of flint. Not an ideal method, but they hadn't had access to any of the three or four better ways. He'd made a straw for each of them to blow coals with. Then he'd collected willow bark that would make good string for snares and fishing lines once it was boiled. They'd started burning the tree trunks into wooden bowls with fire. They paused to scrape the ashes out every now and again. When the wooden tubs are finished they can boil water. Already there throats were so dry they were tempted to drink out of the river. They knew unboiled water was dangerous, but three days was all the time they had before they died of dehydration.

Now they are laying beneath the stars, and two full moons. He laces his fingers through the fingers of her hand, and looks at it. Her ring finger is as naked as the rest of her. "Do you think we are married?" he asks.

She thinks about it. She knows that she loves him. She knows he loves her, but she doesn't know if she is married. She shrugs.

"If we aren't we should be," he says, and she is warmed by his absolute conviction.

She smiles, "Is that a proposal?"

"I guess that depends if I proposed before," he says, "I hope I did."

"Well, if that is a proposal I'll accept. If we're not married we'll get married as soon as…" she stops furrowing her brow. She knows then that ever since she's arrived on this planet she's been waiting for something, but she doesn't know what that something is.

"As soon as what?" he asks concerned. He feels the same unnamed anticipation as she does. Only to him it seems more like a threat. As if something was waiting to steal her away from him.

"I don't know, as soon as we can," she says.

"You cold?" he asks rubbing the goose bumps off her arms.

"No," she lies, snuggling closer to him.


	2. Day 2

Day 2

They finished the bowls, and had some difficulty in filling them with water. At long last they simply carried the water in their hands from the river (their camp was not far from the river). They had heated rocks in the coals of the fire, and then dropped them into the water. Once they were sure the water was safely boiled they drank the water with their hands. It was warm and tasted of wood and charcoal, but they didn't care. They drank a full barrel of water between them.

Their stomachs' were growling by then. They started boiling the willow in the wooden bowls. They twist them into string, and he manages to set two snares before it's bedtime again.

They lay down next to each other, she snuggles against him. He tries to put her hand around her stomach, but misses by just a little. His hand brushes something higher, and suddenly she feels something besides his hand touching her.

"It's my sidearm I swear," he says.

"What is a sidearm?" she asks, although she feels like she should know.

"I think I was trying to make a joke," he says.

"Not a very funny one," she says turning to face him.

"I don't think most of my jokes are," he says.

"I disagree," she says.

"We really need to make clothes," he says pulling back from her, letting the cold air in between them despite the fact they'd agreed they needed to be close, needed to share body heat.

"I have a better idea," she says with a grin pulling him close to her. Kissing his mouth. Digging her fingers into the space between his skin and the mud on his back.

Memories, as vivid as life, entering their minds.

_Steam all around them in a hot wet room. She kisses him, with desperate need. Her head is clouded with something…something indescribably strong, animal. "I want you," she whispers._

_ Wherever their flesh touches it is held together by the surface tension of droplets of water._

_ "Why? I mean no." he says. He pushes her away. She's hurt, but not surprised._

_ It's taking all of his restraint; there is more than water droplets pulling him toward her._

_ "This is a little out of line, don't you think?" he asks her. And his voice is firm. It hides all the wavering underneath, but she sees it anyway._

_ She pushes his body against the bench. He goes down easy. Too easy, unless she took him by surprise or he isn't really fighting it. She is on top of him. Kissing him, desperately trying to make him lose control._

_ "Want me?" she breaths. The question hides her insecurity behind it._

_ "No, no, not like this for crying out loud," he says rolling off the bench so she is squished behind him and the floor._

_ She enjoys the position for a second before he stands up, pulling her after him, and the words enter her brain. But 'not like this' is different than 'no.'_

**He dips her low as she kisses her. The feeling of her kiss on his lips does not leave him even as she evaporates in his arms.**

"Don't you want me?" she asks.

"Let's get you washed up first," he whispers helping her up.

She grins, "As long as you do the washing."

The river is cool, but not so terribly cold.

"I've never been skinny dipping before," she says with a laugh.

"No, you wouldn't be the kind," he says. He runs his hands down her arms freeing the now wet mud.

She removes the soaked mud from his chest.

"I love you," he says.

She kisses him.

"You sure you want this?" he asks.

She nods in the darkness.


	3. Day 3

Day 3

They have as much water as they need now, with three large bowels to boil every day. There is a touch of food today. He finds a grain which they chew on like gum. It takes forever to get them to a point where they can swallow. But the action of chewing make them feel a little better. They dare not eat the fruits and vegetables on an alien planet, since they don't know if they are poisonous or not. They plants are very like earth plants, but none are exactly like earth plants. They spend the morning boiling willow bark, and twisting it into string.

She grinds the grain between to rocks, wets it down with boiled water, and fries it on a flat rock over the fire. The end result is a rough, brunt, grainy sort of cracker. As she mixes it a memory springs to her mind.

_A woman, looking at her as if she was precious. She grabs her hand before the cup of flour drops into the cub, "Does that look like a cup to you?" her mother asks. She feels herself nodding her head._

_ "All the way to the top baby," her mother says putting her hands over her own and guiding them to fill the cup to the top._

_ She throws the cup down causing a puff of flour to envelope them both. She looks at her mother wondering if she's in trouble. Her mother laughs, and pulls her into a hug._

By afternoon they are in the woods setting snares along the paths the large native rabbits lived in. They tie a knot in the string, and set it up so a rabbit would catch his head in it, and not be able to escape since the other end was tied to a tree or bush.

She tosses him a rock, he catches it, and it triggers a sudden memory.

**He sees a face, a young boy, looking up at him as if he was a hero or a god. A small white ball flying through the air. The throw is off, off by quite a bit. He dives to catch it. **

** "I did it!" the boy exclaims, "I threw it!"**

** "You sure did," he says with a wide grin. Standing up, and brushing himself off he takes the ball, and tosses it low and easy toward his son. It bounces off the large mitt in his son's hand. His son's fingers close tight seconds too late in order to catch the ball.**

** "I missed it again," he says.**

** "It's ok Buddy, you'll get it next time," he says.**


	4. Day 4

Day 4

He checks the traps early in the morning while she boils the water. He finds a rabbit. They cook it over the fire, and eat it ravenously. A rabbit shared between them after a three day fast isn't much. But it eases the pain enough that they can think.

She makes more string, enough for thirty some snares and a fishing line. She sets more snares.

He whittles a fish hock from a piece of wood using sharp stone. He makes a fishing line, and casts it into the water.

**The bobber plunks into the water. "Here you go," he says handing the line to his son.**

"**I'm going to catch the biggest fish ever," his son says.**

**Hopefully, you will catch the minnows I released into the pond this morning he thinks.**

** "Why are you reeling it in? You have to wait until you catch a fish," he says out loud.**

** "I did catch a fish," the boy says looking up at him in surprise.**

** "No, if you caught a fish the line would go over like…" he reaches over to pull on his son's line, but the fish does it for him. "You really caught a fish," he says in shock.**

** "I told you Dad!" his son says with an eye roll. **

** "Reel it in! Reel it in!" he exclaims standing behind his son to help him. He would have sworn there were no fish in his lake.**

The line goes down. He walks backward pulling the fish out of the water.


	5. Day 5

Day 5

_A still body on the ground. She points to it. He flips it over. Death, sores, and death. He swears. Terror grips her chest. "MOOP 3 people," he says. He rips open a packet and scrubs his hands with a disinfectant towel, and they pull air tight masks over their eyes._

_ Death, death, everywhere. Seas of dead people._

"Wake up!" he shouts.

"What?" she asks terror still gripping her heart.

"You were screaming, what's wrong?" he asks.

"A nightmare or a memory," she says. He holds her close.

"You ok now?" he asks.

"If you're ok, I am," she says.

He finds two rabbits in the snares today, and catches a fish while making an axe and knife.

She boils the daily water supply, and uses the axe to make holes in the thick trunks of maple tree. Then she use a fire lit in the holes to burn instead of chopping the trees down. She is intent on making a cabin.

"You could just make a lean to shelter," he says, "I don't think we'll be here long.

She looks at him, "I don't know…if they rescue us in a few days that is great, if it takes longer…we'll have a nice place. Besides you like cabins," she says.

"Do I?" he asks.

"I think so," she says. She burns or chops the branches off before she rolls them to their camp. He continues to fish while he cuts notches in the trees, and lays them next to one another forming the cabin little by little.


	6. Day 6

Day 6

**His team is crawling on their stomachs. Gas masks in place as they advance. One of them throws gas into the building.**

** "Move now!" one of them shouts.**

** They start jumping over the wall, one after another.**

** The one who gave the command falls. He is horrified to see a bullet hole in his commander's chest. He pulls his commander out of danger. Blood oozes from the chest wound.**

** "Come on John," he pleads.**

** "So much for satellite recon," the dying man says, "Take care of Barbara for me man?" A gurgling sound, he knows what that means. Death.**

"Wake up," she says holding him close to her.

"Do I scream when I have nightmares?" he asks.

"No," she says, "but your muscles go all tight."

"That was all it took to wake you up?" he asks, "You must be a very light sleeper."

"No…only I can tell when you need me," she says softly.

He's finished making her a bow and arrows, she takes it with her when she goes to check the traps. He feels much better now that she is armed. He begins making a second one, because he will feel even better when both of them are armed.

It turns out he finished the bow and arrow just in time. She was on her knees untangling a dead rabbit from a snare when she hears the sound of a large animal crashing through the underbrush. She is standing with her bow drawn before she's even thought.

She shoots the arrow aiming for the charging pig's chest, knowing it is likely to have less bone than the skull. It is not that she doesn't trust his handiwork, but she isn't sure how well a stone arrowhead will pierce bone.

_Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Six closely clustered shots on a distant target. Each shot causes the gun to give her hands a familiar kick. One she predicts, one she compensates for. The gun is warm in his hands._

"_Great shot, kiddo!" a man says offering her an approving grin._

_ "I was taught by the best," she says grinning at her father._

The arrow only makes the boar alter his direction to be more directly in her bath. It is now baring down on her. The creature's back is not much bigger than her knees, but it has tusks, and speed, amazing speed for a creature that is that fat. She draws another arrow as quickly as she can, and this one too she lets go on it.

She can see it is not enough, and she doesn't have time for another arrow. Even if she did it would reach her before the arrow had any effect. She leaps out of its way. The pig cannot turn in time, but she wastes no time in swirling around, and firing another arrow. This time she does aim for the creature's skull, since its bottom is facing toward her, and she could not get a shot at her chest. The arrow pierces his head, and leaves through his eye.

That arrow, and the other two arrows, seems to have at long last done its work. It falls, but does not die right away. She rushes over. She doesn't have a proper knife of course, only a sharpened rock. It's a rather personal thing to slice an artery with a rock, but she wants to end the creatures pain. But that is a messy business. Her hands are quickly covered in blood.

The creature makes a sound. A sound she's heard before. She isn't sure where she's heard that sound, but she knows it's a sound of death. It stops flailing.

She rests a bit, waiting for the adrenaline, the chemical of panic, to stop cursing through her body and her brain. She doesn't want to think about what would happen to her if she hadn't been fast enough. There is no medical care out here.

She closes her eyes against the thought. Then she really looks at the boar for the first time. It's big, and fat. Easily enough food for several days. She stands up and tries to pull it. Possible, but not ideal. It would be best to go and get him to help.

His face goes pale when he sees her. He drops the knife he's shaping form rock and runs to her. "What happened?" he asks examining her hands and arms for the cut.

"The blood isn't mine," she says it three times before he seems to hear her.

"Whose blood is it?" he asks pulling her toward the river, and washing her hands off. She smiles as she thinks back to the first time he washed her. It was definitely more fun than this.

"I promise, I'm ok," she says as he examines her arms. "I killed a pig."

"A pig?" he asks.

"Yes, like a big wild boar thing."

"How big was it?" he asks looking at her.

She shows him with her hands.

"You shouldn't have been shooting at it, it could have charged," he says.

She doesn't say anything.

He looks at her, "It charged you didn't it?"

She nods.

"You could have died, do you understand that?" he asks. She nods. "You know how when we first woke up we had that terror about the other person dying? That could have been my truth. You might never have returned. Then I would have gone out in the wood, and found…"

"You won't," she says holding him close.

"You have to be more careful," he says.

"It was already, going to run into me, and I knew I could shoot it. I knew…I don't know how much experience I have with bow and arrow, but I know I'm a good shot."

He rests his head against her shoulder, "I need you safe…all the time," he says.

"I'm sorry…I'd like to tell you, you can have that. But I don't want to lie to you," she says.

"This thing has a lot of meat?" he asks.

"Yeah, I wanted to get your help getting it back to camp," she says.

"Look, we've been here for almost week…let's say we start calling this place home," he says.

She closes her eyes, "home."


	7. Day 8

Day 8

_She is flying. Soaring. From the window she can see the whole world. The people like flecks of dust, the cars like models. She moves the stick the smallest of inches, the plane responds by soaring higher, and lower, and in any direction she moves it. Control, power. Flight._

** So unbelievably tiny. He's never imagined such tiny fingers could exist. They wrap around his finger. He never thought it would be this amazing. He runs his finger across the baby's, his son's tiny face. His son turns, and tries to take his finger into his mouth. Tiny eyes open, and look up at his father for the first time. He thinks his heart is going to explode.**

** He looks at her…no, no, it isn't her. It is another woman. His son's mother. He loved that woman. He can't remember what made him stop loving that woman. But he knows he has. He knows that he only loves her now.**


	8. Day 12

Day 12

When the share their confused and mumbled memories with each other, they remember more. He shares everything with her except for memories of his son. They are the most frequent, and when he remembers them there is always a bit of pain which he can not quite explain. He keeps his son, the joy and the pain, to himself.

He teases her with a memory of their meeting.

_Her eyes are trying to issue him a treat, but they are too scared. She is so sure he hates her, and she is so wrong "__I'm an Air Force officer just like you are, and just because my reproductive organs are on the inside instead of the outside, doesn't mean I can't handle whatever you can handle."_

"_Oh, this has nothing to do with you being a woman. I __like__ women. I just have a little problem with scientists."_

" _I logged over a hundred hours in enemy airspace during the Gulf War. Is that tough enough for you? Or are we going to have to arm wrestle?"_

She flirts with him with a memory of his confession.

**She sees him with strange things hocked up to his head. She feels gut wrenching worry for his sake. "I care for her, way more than I am supposed to." He says looking right at her, right past all the people he is supposed to be looking at. Right into her soul. She feels weak at the knees as if she just said something profound. Something she never knew before. As if he just admitted his deepest darkest secret to her.**


	9. Day 16

Day 16

What he wouldn't do for a good set of tools. He doesn't know how he knew about them, but he knew that he longed for them. Longed for shovels, and axes, and knives, and lighters, and pots, and string. The days were filled with backbreaking labor. Trapping, fishing, building a shelter, boiling water, and cutting firewood. Days were hard, but their stomachs were full, and the nights were good. Lord, the nights were good.

"You thirsty?" she asks handing him the bladder from the wild boar she killed. They use it to store water in. She sits down next to him as he watches his multiple fishing lines while sharpening a rock into a knife. He takes the water from her.

"Thanks," he says.

_"Come on!" he'd shouted in exasperation. A thoughtful eyed man, they both remember as an important friend, doesn't look up from the rock he's studying. "Move!" he'd shouted._

_ "He isn't a soldier, sir," she'd told him._

_ "So?" he'd replied gruffly. She could tell he was annoyed._

_ "So, acting like a drill sergeant isn't going to work, sir," she says laughing at him with her eyes, because she dared not laugh at him with anything else right now, he was angry._

_ "What will get him to move out of this indefensible position?" he asked._

_ "If you find someone to help him translate," she says._

_ He mutters under his breath as he heads off to find the other member of their team-the strong one with a mark on his forehead._

"I think I remember your name," she says.

"Yeah?" he asks.

"Sir," she says.

He crinkles up his nose, "No way my name is 'sir,'" he protests.

"I'm almost certain, Sir," she says.

"You can go back to calling me You," he says.

She giggles.

"What is so funny about that?" he demands.

"I don't know, but when you say it like Yu is a name, it's really funny for some reason," she says.

"Better than Sir," he says defensively.

She can tell he's a little bit miffed so she leans forward and kisses him on his cheek.

"I'd better get back to work," she says.

"Walls are almost done, you could fish with me for a bit," he says gesturing toward the four lines that are out in the river.

She leans against him, "This is almost nice. Like a honeymoon, all alone," she whispers.

He smiles, "Yeah, I feel like we don't have much time alone normally."

"We do something important," she says chucking a rock into the water. He glares at her, they've had a lot of discussions about scaring the fish away.

"I know we do," he says.

"I really want to stay here with just me and Yu," she looks at him teasingly, and then growing serious, "forever, but I also REALLY want to get back to the something important," he says.

"I think those faces, those friends we remember…I think they are coming for us. I think they always come for us. I think that is what we've been waiting for," he says.

She rests her ear to his chest, for just a minute, she still needs to hear his heartbeat sometimes. Still needs reassurance that he is alive. She sits for a moment, and then goes back to work.


	10. Day 22

Day 22

They have taken to sleeping in what he insists on calling a cabin, even though it has no ceiling, and the walls only go up to her shoulders. She always calls it a hovel. He keeps calling it a cabin mostly just to annoy her. Which of course is the same reason she calls it a hovel. The first night they slept in it he carried her across the threshold, "Just in case we weren't married before."

On day twenty-two when she wakes up next to him on the blankets which form their bed (she designed a loom and he built it. He makes blankets as he fishes) a fragment of a dream remains.

_ She looks up at the tall circle, shimmering pool of blue. Then she turns to him, "__You know, you really will like me when you get to know me."_

_He smiles at her, "Oh, I adore you already, Captain." And she isn't sure if he's teasing her or not. She looks at the rippling blue coming from the circle._

"_My God. Look at this! I mean, the energy the 'gate must release to create a stable wormhole is…it's astronomical to use exactly the right word!" She can't resist it any longer, and she reaches out her hand, she needs to feel it. It feels…feels like nothing she can describe. There is nothing to compare it to. It ripples, and she says, "You can actually see the fluctuation in the event horizon!"_

_He shoves her through. Her whole body is engulfed in that inexplicable feeling. It is exciting, and terrifying and thrilling all in one. The feeling also includes nausea, and cold, and pain. But she isn't mad at him. When she comes out on the other side she's already looking forward to her next trip._

"There is something missing from this planet," she says.

He rolls on his side to look at her. "Like people?" he asks.

"No," she says giggling at him, "I don't know…It's round."

His eyes grow wide, and he nods his head, "Yeah, and made of water?" he squints.

"Not quite…" she says, "But I know what you mean. It's part of the important stuff we do," she says.

"He nods…I've been thinking about it. You know how we keep talking about planets…I think maybe we go to different planets," he says.

"And the faces…our team, I've been thinking about that too," she nods, "But how did we get here alone, naked, and without memories?"

"And if our jobs is what caused this paranoia about each other's death we both have I'm not entirely sure I want to go back to this big important thing," he says. The desperate need to check and make sure the other is still alive is fading, but it is still pretty strong.

"I think we'll want to, when we remember it. And…I'm not sure how much choice we have," she says.

He shakes his head, pulling he close, "they are never going to make us do something we don't want to do."

And she feels so safe. She doesn't need protecting, but he'll do it anyway.


	11. Day 28

Day 28

_They are injured again, but the strong one with the forehead Tattoo, he is never injured. He stands like a guard over their hospital beds, waiting for them to recover. _

_ "T, you should get some rest," he says._

_ "I am fine," the warrior says without making a move._

_ Talk about the strong silent type._


	12. Day 36

Day 36

He hears the sound of vomiting. He's glad he was fishing already. Usually this early he is still checking the traps. But he got up early this morning, and checked the traps before they shared their breakfast. He rushes to her side. He holds on to the edge of the house as she vomits up her breakfast. She looks up at him sheepishly. "Sorry," she says.

"Hey, don't be sorry," he says, "You ok?"

"Yeah," she smiles, "I thought I'd be over this by now. I can't keep throwing up food when it's so scarce."

"Hold it, frequent occurrence?" he asks.

She nods.

"You should have told me, how long?" he asks.

"I don't know a week?" she says trying to make it sound casual. She had hid it from him at first, because she didn't want him to worry. But she was getting worried now that it had gone on so long. She was sort of glad he was finding out.

"Every day?" he asks.

"No, sometimes, most days. Other days I might just feel nauseas," she says.

"Damn it," he says.

"I'm fine," she says.

"We have no medical care out here. We don't have so much as Tums," he says.

"I'm ok," she says. Now she was wishing he didn't find out. God that man worries. Not that she wouldn't be the same way with him.

"I wish we had some saltines," he says.

"What?" she asks.

He pauses, "I don't know why I said that. I hate this memory thing."

She nods, heading back toward the cabin where she is boiling the morning water in the wooden bowls near the fire place.

"Uh, no sweetie, you're taking the day off," he says.

"I told you I've been sick for awhile," she says.

"Rest," he insists.

"I can't take days off. We need boiled water, we need food, we need to finish the roof, and we need clothes. That takes two people full time," she says looking at him intently.

"If I lose you it will kill me," he says.

She pulls him into a tight hug, "I promise, I'm ok. How about I fish and work the loom and you take care of the wood, and cabin?" she says.

"Ok," he says, and he still looks worried.

She goes to kiss him, but pulls back remembering her vomit mouth, "I wish I had a toothbrush."

He kisses her forehead, and gets her water to wash her mouth out.


	13. Day 37

Day 37

**It's not her. It's the someone else he loved once. They are lying in bed next to one another; he put his hand on her large stomach. She smiles at him. She sits up and takes a cracker off the nightstand and eats it. Saltines.**

**The boys face. His son. His dead son. Blood everywhere. Hole in his son's chest. Blood on his hands, his lap, the floor. Blood everywhere. Holding him rocking him. Dead. Cold. Still. The face. The guilt. The pain.**

**The weight of a gun in his hand. The gun his son shot himself with. His gun. It would be so easy to leave this world. The world that doesn't have his son.**

It's not the kind of dream you come out of easily. The feeling from the dream remains. He sits up in bed, and scrubs his face with his hands. He's desperate to remember, just to remember his son's name. How could he forget his son?

Saltines. He turns and looks at her. She's pregnant. He knows it in a flash. He's happy. He's terrified. He watches her sleep, and works through his worries. He has to be calm when she wakes up, because she knows she's going to freak out.

Her eyes open, "Hey beautiful," he says.

"What's wrong?" she asks sitting up startled.

"Nothing wrong," he says with a smile.

"Why are you staring at me then?" she asks.

"I think…I think you're pregnant," he says carefully.

She stares at him, and burst into tears. He sweeps her into his arms, and rocks her back and forth. "It's going to be ok," he coos over and over. He knows this isn't the time to tell her how great it will be to have a kid. How happy he is, that will come later.

"It's not ok, it's going to die, our baby is going to die," she sobs.

He tries to beat down the flash of panic he has at her words, "No, no, the baby is going to be fine. Why do you think the baby is going to die?"

"We don't have vegetables, no fruit. I can't keep the food down. I've lost weight! We don't know if winter is coming. What if I'm sick and can't work?"

He stops her, "Jesus, I'm not going to let you guys starve. I'm going to make sure this baby gets what they needs. We haven't been eating the fruits and vegetables because we didn't know for sure they aren't poisonous. I'll eat them…"

"No," she says shaking her head panicky.

"It will be fine. We'll get you that stuff. Lots of women lose weight right away, you'll gain weight soon. It's going to be ok, I promise I'll take care of you, both of you," he says placing a hand on her stomach.

She looks up at him with fear in her eyes, "What if there is winter?" she asks.

"We've got weeks of food saved up. We'll get more before. We'll be ok," he says.

"We're going to have to build another room," she says.

"Yeah," he says.

"And you are not trying the vegetables and fruits. We're not risking your life. It isn't worth it." she says. Suddenly her face lights up, "A baby."

"Yes," he grins.

"Why am I worried you aren't going to be happy?" she asks examining his face. Often they have emotions they cannot explain with memories. The daily fear of the other's death is prime among them. Her face falls, "You aren't happy."

"I am happy, only I remembered something new today. Not a good one," he says carefully. She keeps looking at him, "I can see a face. A little boy. My son. He's dead."

"I don't remember my son?" she asks.

He flinches.

"Not my kid," she says trying to keep the bitter disappointment and fear out of her voice, and failing miserably.

He shakes his head.

"His mother?" she asks.

"I'm so sorry. I should be able to answer that question. You deserve an answer to that. I can't remember. I know I'm not still with her though," he says.

"Ok," she says. "Your son?" she asks rubbing his back.

"I don't remember his name," he says.

"Not your fault," she says.

"He…died in an accident," he says softly. He can't bring himself to tell her the whole truth. He's not even sure he could make his mouth form the words, but he does know that he doesn't want her to know.

"It will come back," she says. And he hates himself, because he's not completely sure he wants it to come back. He feels a lot of pain, he doesn't know how much more he can take.

He touches her stomach, "I want to focus on this baby, ok. It's all I can handle," he says.

She touches her forehead to his, "Ok."

"I'm going to go check the trap line, you take it easy, ok," he says giving her a kiss.

She grabs his hand, "Stay with me until I'm done eating breakfast. It might help me keep it down," she asks. He nods.

He comes back about lunch time with arms full of vegetables instead of meat.

"No," she says.

"I've eaten some of all of these," he says, "Tomorrow, assuming I'm still healthy you can eat them to."

"I can't believe you did that," she says, and he sees how terrified he is.

"I had to, for the baby," he says softly.


	14. Day 38

Day 38

She is staring at him. He smiles at her.

"How do you feel?" she asks.

"I'm fine," he says, "I made you some saltines," he says offering her the crackers they have made from the grains.

"The apples are really bitter, like crab apples, but worse. But they probably have the best nutrients for you," he says with a smile, "These leaves, are really sweet," he says offering them to her.

When breakfast is over he kisses her, and her stomach, and then goes off to gather more vegetables.


	15. Day 65

Day 65

She's happy, not just content happy. She thinks the feeling is foreign to her. She's used the grains he's gathered to make bread. She's discovered she's a good cook. The fireplace is finished, and they have built a table, two chairs and bed. He's made an outfit for himself, and two for her. They have a little food stored up, and a little firewood, and the winter they feared does not seem to be coming. All in all her life is getting easier every day.

The nausea has lessened, and his crackers really did help. Well, her improved version of his crackers. It's a cozy little one room cabin. Cabin.

_ She sees his face before her, "Personally I have a date with a little lake in Minnesota where the bass grow this big," he says pulling his hands far apart._

_ "Really?" she says feeling the sarcasm dripping from her voice._

_ "Oh yes! What I am describing here requires a very special element."_

_ She wants to focus on him, but her work is pulling her away. "This is fun for me, sir."_

_ He makes a face "Well, if playing with your little reactor sounds better than exploring the lakes and natural beauty of northern Minnesota, there's not much I can do."_

_ "Was that an invitation…sir?" she asks. Thinking he would say no, back away, retreat as soon as she called him on it._

"_Nothing wrong with that is there? A couple of coworkers, friends if you will, fishing. It'd be fun."_

_She can't believe he's offering. She can't believe she's considering it. She can't believe she's going to turn him down, "Wow. I appreciate the offer, Sir. Really. Sounds great…but I should…"_

_He is crestfallen, but is trying not to let her know, "No sweat. See you in a week, and by all means, have fun."_

_He walks down the hall, and suddenly she knows…more than anything she wants to go with him to his cabin._

"_Wait!" she calls. But she can't go to his cabin, because of her work, her important work. "Um…Have a good time," she says shocked at how lame it sounds._

"_Land of sky blue waters? Loofahs. "Ya sure you betcha, snookums." Mosquitoes…" he says._

_ And he disappears in a flash of light. Dreams are funny that way._

But he isn't going anywhere now, and they have a cabin. They are good at this, this teamwork, this survival, this living off the land. If they had to do this forever, they could. If they had to raise their baby like this, they could. She isn't scared anymore.

And then suddenly she is. She hears his scream. She runs outside to him. God, he's got an axe head in his arm. It's in deep. The blood is dripping down his arm. Too much blood.

"I'm ok," he assures her. "Got some fabric?" he asks.

She's panicking, "Carter, get me a piece of fabric," and there is something in his voice which she can't disobey. It reminds her of him, a big part of him. A part of him she hasn't remembered much of until now.

She pulls off her shirt, and hands it to him, she already knows he needs stitches. She runs into the house and starts boiling water, dropping his best needle and some of his extra thread in it. She tries to ignore the fact that her hands are shaking. She's going to have to get rid of that shake, knowing what is coming. He's wrapped her shirt around the axe and his arm, and has sat down at the table.

He must see the panic in her face, because he says, "It's ok, we know what we're doing. I don't know how, but we do. We'll be fine," he assures her.

She nods, dropping the string into the boiling water. Blood all over the table. She forces her eyes close. Pretend it was someone else, she tells herself. Just look at the wound, not his face.

"The water is boiling," he says softly.

She washes his hands carefully, with the handmade soap. Carefully, scrubbing up the arm. She treads the needle.

"You can do this," he says trying to catch her eye. She nods, but doesn't look at his eye.

"I'm going to pull it out, you're going to put pressure on," she says.

"Ok," he says, "Ready."

She pulls the axe head out, and there is a rush of blood. He pushes her shirt against it hard for a little while.

"Lift it," she says. She pinches his flesh together, and pokes the needle through the flesh. It's a bone needle, so the hole is huge. He tries to muffle his pain, for her sake she knows. "Scream if you need to, I know it hurts like hell," she says. It's the first time he can remember her saying a real swear word.

All his focus is observed in keeping his arm still. The wound is deep. He knows it's bad, but she's doing a good job. The stitches are holding the wound together so it's more of an ooze than a gush from the wide holes the needle left. He knows there is no way he's going to die from loss of blood.

Her hand is oddly steady now that it has to be. Stitch after stitch until it's done.

She hands him the bloddy shirt, "Hold it on there for awhile," she says. She takes some other cloth and cleans it in the newly boiled water. She washes the wound carefully with clean cloth and soap.

"I'm ok," he says taking her hand with his good arm.

She looks in his eyes again, and gives him a hug. She knows the only threat now is blood poisoning. That axe couldn't have been clean. But the hard part is over, and she really needs a hug.

"I'm fine," he repeats.

"You'd better lay down for a bit," she says. She takes the dirty clothes and whips up the bloody table. The bloody floor. He lays down on the bed.

"You should probably rest too," he says.

"In a minute," she says. She knows the blood needs to be washed out now if she's going to save the fabric, and the fabric is too hard to make not to save. Once the fabric is rung out she takes some bread and puts it on low heat.

"You making toast?" he asks.

"Penicillin, but it's going to take a week," she says with worry.

"If you're working on medicine I'd take some pain killer or moonshine," he says.

She grins, "Willow bark," then her face goes grave, "You going to be ok for a bit?"

"If you're bringing back pain pills the answer is definitely," he says.

"Got my medicine?" he asks playfully when she returns an hour later.

"It's going to take an hour or two," she says, "Why didn't we make medicine before something happened?" she asks, and he hears tears almost bubbling to the surface.

"Hey, what's wrong? I'm ok," he says.

"If you go septic the medicine won't be done in time…" and she can't finish because she's sobbing.

"Come here," he says.

"I have to finish you medicine," she says.

"Come here first," he says.

She lays down next to his good arm. He holds her close. "I'm going to be fine."

"That axe is dirty," she says, "sepsis…"

"Not going to happen," he says.

"No, the odds are…" she says.

"I think we beat the odds a lot," he says.

"I don't want to be alone," she says.

He kisses the top of her head, the only thing he can reach, "Not going to leave you, and my baby."

"You called me 'Carter'," she says.

"Did I?" he asks, thinking back, "I suppose I did."

"Why?" she asks.

"I think that's your name," he says.

She laughs, "I don't think that's my name."

"You sure responded to it," he says.

"It does not sound like a typical girl's name," she says.

"And you're not a typical girl," he says.

"Hey now!" she protests.

"Which is a good thing, a typical girl couldn't have just stitched up her husband's arm before he bled to death. Thanks for that, Carter," he says.

"No problem, Sir," she says pointedly.

"Alright, fine, I won't call you Carter, but I still think that is your name," he says.

"Cranberries!" she shouts.

"Isn't it early for cravings?" he asks.

"No, cranberries have natural antibiotic properties, might be enough to tide you over until the penicillin is done," she says getting up carefully, and rushing out of the cabin.

"Aspirin first!" he calls. But she's already gone. He sighs, drags himself out of bed, and looks at the willow she left on the table. She was separating the center from the edges, so he keeps doing that.

She arrives back, "What are you doing out of bed?" she scolds.

"It hurts, and you weren't going to make it better," he pouts.

"I'm sorry," she says putting the cranberries she gathered down. "Go back to bed, I'll get the willow ready."

"I can help," he says.

"Go lay down," she says softly, and what worries him most is the worry in her eyes.


	16. Day 68

Thetis-I couldn't respond to you directly, so I'm doing it here. The axe is made ofstone. I mentioned Jack making stone tools in a few places earlier in the story.

Day 68

He feels her spooning something into his mouth. She is begging him, and he tries to eat it. He is septic from the stupid arm injury. He needs to eat the medicine she made him. It's the only way he's going to live.

**But he's somewhere else too. Drifting, burning up, his side is aching; his lungs need just one more breath.**

** This time there is not going to be a last minute save. Worse yet, she's dying too.**

** They put him in a sealed pod like the ones the Asgard, whoever they are, have to wait for death. He struggles to open his eyes for one last glance at the world. Even that hurts.**

** He is alone.**

** Then she crawls there next to him. He can feel the heat from her body, an unreal, inhuman temperature. It feels like she's got a fever of a hundred and twenty. He can feel her heart beat growing weaker. He wishes he could save her.**

** "I love you, so much," she whispered, and she had to take breaks for two breathes in between her words. She was so sick it almost killed her to tell him. To tell him after all that time.**

** "I love you, more than anything," he says, and he tries to reach around and hold her. His arm is too heavy, he's too sick to hug the woman he loves. She helps him lift his arm. Then she leans forward and gently kisses him on his lips. Her lips feel like they are a thousand degrees. They are not long in the world. But they are dying together. Finally, together.**

"Come on," she whispers spooning cranberry willow mix into his mouth. She doesn't know if it will save him. She's been debating taking the arm for two days now. She knows he's going to be pissed if he wakes up minus an arm. But she'll do it if she has to. Even that has no guarantees. She could take his arm and he could bleed to death in the surgery. He could get gangrene and die a slow painful death smelling his own flesh rooting. If she could just get the fever down. If the cranberry would let him hold on just long enough for the stronger medicine to be ready. If only…

Her head droops onto her shoulder. Her long vigil is finally ended by sleep.

_She is so sick. God she's never been this sick. And she's been sick before. She feels like she's a fire. She worries she's going to set the bed on fire. But she also knows that just a delusion cause by the fever._

_ Where is he?_

_ Dying._

_ No, if she could just get to him. She needs to get to him._

_ He's dying, and no one should die alone._

_ She crawls out of bed. The nurses try to stop her. But she's determined. The doctor sighs, and puts her tiny shoulder under Sam's armpit. The doctor grabs onto Sam and helps her. "You know just because I'm helping my friend doesn't mean this isn't against medical advice."_

_ Sam would have laughed, but it took way too much effort._

_ She tries to pull herself into the strange bed they have them in._

_ "Sam, I don't think that is such a good idea. You both have a high enough fever already, combining body heat…"_

_ She isn't listening to the doctor anymore, she's next to him. _

_ "I love you, so much," she says with the last of her strength, even though she's not sure he's awake. She wouldn't even be sure he was still alive if it weren't for the heat coming off of him. Dead people are not that warm, neither are people who are going to live._

_ "I love you, more than anything," he says. She is glad, because she was never quite sure._

_ He uses the last of his strength to put his arm around her, and still can't quite manage. She helps him. She's never felt his hand around her before. She kisses him. It's not there first kiss, but it is their last kiss._

_ She can feel him dying._

_ Hold on. She pleads with her mind, her mouth is too dry to work._

_ Hold on._

If you are still confused as to why Jack and Sam ended up alone on a planet naked and without memories, I will give you a hint. In the first story I told you this is an AU version of the episode "Frozen". That is all the hint you get. It wouldn't be any fun if I just told you!


	17. Day 69

Day 69

Hold on.

She opens her eyes, and sees him. She pulls her hand over to his mouth to feel his breath. Still alive.

Now all she had to do was keep him that way.

"Come on, open up for me, love. I've got some nummy mush," she says soothingly. He opens his mouth. She tries to chase away the dream of his death.


	18. Day 70

Day 70

**"Where is she?"**

** "There are more important things at stake."**

** "Let me see her. Let me talk to her. Let me choose with her."**

** "Death or ascension."**

** "What if she chooses differently?"**

** "What will she choose?"**

** "She never gives up."**

"Come on, another bite of the good stuff, open up," he obeys opening his mouth wide. "Nice, one more," she prompts again.

"If you keep saying one more I'm going to stop believing you," he says.

"Back in the land of the living," she says calmly, but he can hear how happy she is in her voice.

"Yeah, well I had a pretty good nurse," he says.

"Your medicine is in this mush, so keep eating," she says.

"How long was I out for?" he asks.

"Five days," she says.

"You ok?" he asks taking a mouthful of the mush. Definitely cranberry flavored, but there is the bitter flavor of willow in it, and something that tastes like—like moldy bread.

She strokes his hair, "You scared me. And I remembered…I remembered another time you were sick."

He looks at her, "Me too…you were sick too. You crawled into my…I don't know hospital tube thing. Told me you loved me."

"Yeah, well you said it to," she teases.

"I meant it to," he says.

"You'd better have," she says pulling his good hand onto her stomach.

"How is our baby?" he asks.

"Good," she says, but she's thinking inside that she doesn't know. It worries her. She wants to see it on an ultrasound. She wants to hear its heart beat. She desperately wants a doctor to tell her the baby is fine. That it isn't malnourished by her "off the land" diet, or…or that something in her blood isn't hurting it, but she doesn't know what the something is.

"I'm sorry…I should have been there to take care of you and our baby, and here you are taking care of me," he says.

"I can take care of myself, and our baby, and my husband," she says.

"You shouldn't have to," he says.

"Eat your medicine," she says.


	19. Day 71

Day 71

"Get back in bed!" she screams.

"I'm just going to boil water, so you can go trapping. You work too long," he says.

"No," she says.

"I worry about you just like you worry about me," he says, "You are pregnant, and you've been doing two people's work for weeks in addition to taking care of me. You can't do that forever. Just let me boil water, if it gets to be too much I promise, I'll stop," he says.

_Slowly she wakes up. He's lying near her on the hard floor. "Sir?" she asks. He doesn't move. "Sir!" she screams._

_ "We should have brought more snacks," he says._

_ "I don't think it would have helped," she says. There is something between them. She doesn't see it until he walks into it. Transparent, but immovable it bounces him back. She's trapped._

_ "Sir, you have to get out of here," she says. He has to leave. He has to live._

_ "So do you," he says. He doesn't even consider saving himself. No one should die alone._

_ He bangs frantically at some buttons. She knows it isn't going to work. She knows she is as good as dead. But if he doesn't leave, he's going to die too._

_ "Please Sir! There is no time!" she screams._

_ And he looks into her eyes, and she knows. He's never going to leave her._

"Just be careful," she says.


	20. Day 89

Day 89

They declare it Christmas, just for a change in pace. They don't know what date their calendar began on, and the fact that they are on an alien planet with weather that barely changes, makes even an educated guess of time of year impossible. It seemed like a good time though, they have just killed two pigs in a single week. There is plenty of food. If that isn't cause for celebration, they don't know what is. After finishing the house she started building a lean to. It was intended to be used as the baby's room, but it was quickly requisitioned as storage, even before it was finished. They feel fortunate to have so much to store.

They decorate an evergreen (one of the few around) with pretty rocks and wildflowers.

_She sees her mother-baking cookies. Her brother telling a joke. She feels her father pulling her to his side in a sort of half-hug he often does. When she looks at her mother there is some pain…something she can not quite remember._

_ Baking cookies. Her father talking to her. Her mother is dead._

_ Closed casket. Bad accident. But she peaked anyway, that's what teenagers do. But the horror, the mangle flesh. That was not her mother. It would never be her mother._

He holds her, and rocks her as she relives the memory, as potent, as powerful as it was the first time. He tells her what he can remember of his son's death. He's had enough nightmares that he's pasted it together. But on their Christmas he has his first memory of his son that doesn't end in blood.

_**His son's face, running toward him. Christmas morning. He'd gotten his son exactly the bike he'd asked for, exactly. Even though it was more than they usually paid. He couldn't stop thanking them.**_

_** "Will you teach me to ride, Dad?" his son asks.**_

_** "Maybe we should leave the training wheels on," he says.**_

_** "Please dad," his son begs.**_

_** "Alright Charlie," he says.**_

"My son's name was Charlie," he says.

She smiles at him. It's their first name.

For Christmas he gives her a handmade toothbrush, and a necklace made from an agate.

She proudly presents him a horribly misshapen bowl. He fails to see the significance of it at first.

"Don't you see? We've entered the iron age!" she exclaims. He understands the bowl is more about the promise of things to come than the bowl itself.


	21. Day 103

Day 103

They exchange their memories.

_The strange marching sound the mechanical snake soldiers make as they march across the golden hallways._

**The long heavy weapons carried be these soldiers, the sound they make when the activate, the light they give off before they fire. The light which is their firing.**

_Hiding._

**Teamwork. The four of them. Their friend, glasses, so wise, diplomatic, and kind. Another friend, strong, warrior, and brave. And she and him.**


	22. Day 154

Day 154

She is startled by the feeling, not much different from the feeling on the strange pool of water they go through. Except with the pool of water covers your whole body. With this it was only in her stomach. Their baby.

She glances at the logs she is cutting down by burning. The logs for her baby's room. They'll be fine while she goes and tells him.

"I felt our baby," she says.

He grins at her, and puts his hand on her stomach.

"You're not going to feel it yet," she says.

"Maybe I'll feel a baby bump," he says.

"I hope you do," she says serious.

"Huh, I was expecting you to smack me for that one," he says worried.

"I worry sometimes," but she stops talking. She knows her words would wound him.

"You scared the baby isn't getting big enough?" he asks, "Do you have enough food? We've got plenty. Don't be saving it for a rainy day, if the kid needs more food," he says concerned.

"No, it's…I eat as much food as I want. Just…sometimes I wonder the kid might miss some nutrient. I wish we had doctors, prenatal vitamins, something."

He nods, "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault we're stranded here," she says.

"Only, I think it is," he says.

**"It could be a good thing," she says trying to calm him down.**

** "They lied in the brochure, Carter," he raves. "Come join us on a higher plane of existence, we can do cool magic tricks. But hey, we can't do anything real. We can't actually help anyone!"**

** "It's not your job to save the universe," their friend, the one with the thoughtful face says.**

** "I can't believe you're happy with this! Mr. We-have-to-save-every-lifeform-in-the-glaxy-whether-they-like-it-or-not! Are you really going to be happy with this? Happy with it for the next, what, ten thousand years? Doing nothing while the Gou'ald kill everyone!"**

** "It's not like we can't do anything," she says locking eyes with him.**

** "Right, we can stare that the Gou'ald real hard, and see if they spontaneously combust. No thanks. Bad trade," he says.**

** "It's better than death," she says her eyes still wet with tears. She thought she lost him. Well, she had lost him. He'd died in her arms. He'd died first. She'd felt him die.**

** "Is it though, Carter? And are we sure that's our only option? You've been here longer, what happens if we break the rules?" he says looking at their friend.**

** "You…retake human form," their friend sputters.**

** "So they just send us home?" he asks in disbelief.**

** "No…no, it isn't quite so nice as that," their friend says.**


	23. Day 156

Day 156

"Got the room done?" he says with a smile.

"Yeah," she says, "Makes the whole baby thing feel a little more real."

"Oh, trust me," he says with a laugh, "It was pretty real already. I got something that belongs in this room," he says.

Out from behind his back he pulls a stuffed dog. It is make out of the same rough fabrics as their clothes. It's undyed, rough, and without eyes or mouth or fine embroidered stitches. But to her it is some kind of a miracle.

She stares at it for a long time without saying anything.

"It's soft," she finally says.

"Cattails," he responds, unable to read her voice.

She flings her arms around him. "Our kid is so lucky to have you as a father," she says.

"No…no….you have to understand, Charlie," he says.

She holds his chin so he has to look into her yes, "I do understand. I understand that your son died, because of a horrible tragedy. I understand that it was not your fault, even though you blame yourself. I understand that you are an amazing Dad, and I have no idea how to be a Mom. I didn't even have one for a chunk of my growing up."

He pulls her back into a hug, "You are going to make an amazing mom," he says.

"How do you know?" she asks, her voice self-conscious.

"Because…" he says, "Because of Cassie." When he first says the name, there is nothing else to go with it, but as soon as it is said he sees her face, and then the memory comes, first to her.

_"I can take her from you now," he says tenderly._

_ She holds the little girl in her arms closer to her body. There was no way this girl was going anywhere but her own arms, "No, sir, that's ok."_

_ "This elevator goes down thirty floors through solid rock. Takes about three minutes to get to the bottom. That gives you four minutes to start back up,' he says, giving her orders. He gives her orders a lot, and she wonders why she doesn't mind._

_ She gets into the elevator. He presses the button, and he tries to give her a faint smile, but he somewhat fails._

_ Cassie opens her eyes and blinks at her._

_ "Where are we going?" the little girl asks. Sam isn't sure why this questions fills her with such unspeakable horror, but she knows it does._

_ "Please, go back to sleep," she pleads with the little girl._

_ "I'm not tired anymore," she says. She sets Cassie down gently. Cassie looks up at her, with concern covering her face._

_ "Are you crying?" Cassie asks. She is surprised to see that she is._

_ The elevator reaches the bottom, and her heart almost stops. She pushes open the large door. It isn't the kind of room that people would want to die in. She sits her down on a concrete slap that will serve as her chair._

_ "Sit down here and rest for awhile, okay? I have to go," she says, but she can't understand the deep aching that fills her heart to overthrowing._

_ "You promised you'd never leave me alone," the little girls says with glittering eyes._

_ "I'll be back, okay? I'll be back," how can she lie to Cassie? She brushes her hair, overcome with guilt, and trying to hide it, "You're very brave, remember?"_

_ "I'm very brave," Cassie repeats._

_ Her heart is breaking. She reminds herself she is a soldier, she reminds herself she is follows orders._

_ "I have to close the door," she says. Such a typical discussion, every night thousands of parents and children decide whether the door is going to be open or closed._

_ Cassie nods. She really is a brave kid. Way braver than she should have to be._

_ She walks out of the room. She shuts the door. She hears Cassie calling her name. Softly at first, but then louder and louder. She leans against the door. Kicks the wall._

_ She's a soldier, but she is also a human. And no one deserves to die alone._

_ Cassie is in her arms, he's screaming at her over the intercom. He's trying to save her. She's staying with Cassie._

_ "I love you," Cassie says._

_ "I love you too," Sam says._


	24. Day 181

Day 181

He's setting the table for breakfast, with the iron dishes she's made. She's become quite the blacksmith. There days have taken on an easy rhythm, almost too easy, he's worried she'll get bored. She is after all, way smarter than your average person.

In the morning she checks the trap line. He tends the garden they planted with the native tomatoes, lettuce like plants, potatoes, onion like plant, and several others which have no earth equivalent. This world appears to have no winter. Each day is the same, warm as long as the orangish sun is in the sky, and cool in the nights. Then he boils the day's water supply, an easy task now that they have a large iron cauldron. Then he makes breakfast.

After they eat he has a day of fishing, making tools, curing meat, and collecting the tart apples. The baby's room is ready and waiting now with a crib, toy chest, piles of diapers and clothes and blankets as well as a few toys made by each of its parents.

That work being done Sam devotes most of her day to the inventing of new continence items. A solar heated shower, which consisted of little more than a black tank and gravity, was her first order of business. Next she created a rather ingenious toilet, also relying heavily on gravity, but also on a pulley system, that was halfway between an outhouse and a flush toilet.

Now she'd turned her attention to the matter of a freezer. If it was anyone else in the world he'd believe she'd flipped her lid trying to build a freezer out of a hallowed out log, and whatever else she could find lying around, but she did have determination and a genius mind on her side.

He finishes setting the last iron cup on the table, and smiles to himself thinking he wouldn't mind staying here forever.

Then he hears it. It's a sound you do not easily forget. Not that it is a particularly loud sound, nor in fact a particularly unique one. But when a sound comes before something that has hurt you badly, even once, even amnesia does not separate that sound from its meaning.

He doesn't know what it is for a second, only that it means danger. Only that it activates the part of him that is a soldier. Then he remembers.

**Sand blowing into his eyes, nose, mouth, ears, every pore on his body. He remembers hearing once that glass is made from burnt sand, and he believes it, every piece of sand embeds into his skin fells like glass shards.**

** It isn't just any sand storm though. He's seen plenty of those, fighting in deserts. He remembers a lot of fighting in deserts. No, this sandstorm is caused by a ship.**

** A space ship, filled with aliens who bring death. Faces of those killed by the one who is coming in the spaceship.**

He's glad Sam is away. He hopes she has enough sense to stay in the woods. But he knows he has to go out and meet this foe straight on.

**Kick the slimy snakehead ass…**

But he doesn't even know what that means. Bow and arrow drawn he heads out of the cabin.

"Jack!" a stunned voice says.

He doesn't lower the bow and arrow, but he does loosen the tension on it.

_"_**Get outta town. Sam's Dad? I've heard nothing about you, Sir."**

He knows that face.

"You're alive," the stunned voice says moving closer. Conscious of the bow, but seemly driven by a completion to touch him, "How can you be alive?"

"You're her father," Jack says. He meant it to sound like a question, but by the time he got to the end of the sentence he was so certain of it that it turned into a statement.

"Sammy's here?" he says and the desperation, cold hard fatherly desperation makes Jack lower his weapon.

"Uh…we can't remember names…we can't remember much, actually. But ah…the one I call she is trapping in the woods."

Her father looks concerned, "She…is she blond, blue eyed, really smart, and…"

"Leggy," he continues for her father, "Yeah, that's the one. She'll be back soon."

Relief floods her father's face, although he gave a good scowl and the description of 'leggy' "How did you survive?"

He begins, "First we built a fire, and then…" but he trails off when he realizes this is not what the man means, "When we first woke up we were terrified the other one was going to die," he says. It's the closest he can get to an explanation.

"Woke up?" her father asks.

"Yeah neither of us remembers anything before we woke up next to each other without supplies," he decides to leave off the 'or clothes' part, because of her father's reaction to him describing her as leggy. After all, no matter how old a girl gets, she's always her father's little girl.

"Wow," her father says, "and you've built this in the time you've been gone?" he asks stunned indicating the cabin.

"Mostly your daughter's doing, she's quite smart," he says noticing her father's grin at the words. "Look, don't take this personally, but I told you we don't know names…" he begins.

"I'm Jacob," her father says.

He bites his lip, "and my name is?" he asks.

"Oh geeze, of course, amnesia! You're Jack O'Neill," Jacob says.

"And my wife's name?" Jack says.

Jacob looks confused, "You're ex-wife? I don't think you've talked to Sara for years."

Jack speaks slowly, "Sarah…Charlie's mother?"

Jacob nods.

"Ok, but I meant your daughter, what's her name?" Jack asks.

"Sam…you and Sam are not married," Jacob says coming out of his confusion enough to be delicate.

Jack's face goes pale, "I worried about that…I hoped we were. But the more memories we got…the one with the white dress never came. I remembered fighting with her…" he suddenly realized how that sounded, "no I mean fighting beside her against-against people who drive ships like that. Why are you in the enemies ships Jacob?"

Jacob is suddenly glad for a change in conversation, although he realizes the other topic is going to have to be addressed again before he brings them home. He wonders what they will do about it. They will probably go back to hiding their feelings just as they have done for the last six years. He tries to be happy about that. It's certainly what is best for the galaxy. But it's not what his daughter deserves.

He suddenly notices Jack is still expecting an answer. He searches back in his mind for the question, and his symbiot happily provides a repeat.

"Uh…the bad guys, called Gou'ald do fly these ships. But so do the good guys called Tok'ra."

**"Oh God, he's telling you the truth! Please, Jack!" someone screaming with her body, with her voice. But that someone is not her. Tok'ra. "No, Jack! Please, don't leave me, please! Give me a chance! Don't leave me like this! Please!"**

"What's wrong?" Jacob says alarmed by Jack's absorption in the memory.

"Just…remembering. I'm sorry Jake, I don't think I like the Tok'ra very much," Jack says.

"You've got that right," Jacob says, "but I'm going to take you guy's home when Sam gets here."

He grins, "Yeah, she'll love that, although she'll probably hate having to abandon her refrigerator project. She was pretty bound and determined to get that thing working."

"She's building a refrigerator?" Jacob asks in shock.

Jack grins, "Yeah, it's solar powered, she's pretty impressive, let me give you the grand tour," he says proudly showing off his…no, not his wife's, Sam's accomplishments.

They enter the main house, and Jack starts showing Jacob an iron cup, but Jacob's eyes are on the baby's room.

"This planet inhabited?" Jacob asks his mouth going dry.

"Just us," Jack says causally before he looks up to see where Jacob's eyes were resting. "Right, I should have told you before you came in here," he rushes on, "Look Jacob, I know we're not married. But we honestly thought we were. We remembered we were in love anyway. And we planned, right from the first day to get married if we got rescued, and weren't already. We didn't exactly mean to have a baby, I mean you should see the way sh…Sam worries about proper nutrition, but it's our baby. It's your grandbaby."

Jacob grabs onto a wall to steady himself, "You're…you're planning on getting married?" he asks weekly.

"Of course," Jack says, "I love her."

And he makes it so simple. Something which has been unbelievably complex for six years, and he makes it simple just like that. Jacob hates the fact that he's going to have to be the one to add all the complexity back into their lives.

"You looked stunned by us talking about marriage. I figured we would have talked about it before. How long have we known each other?" Jack asks.

"Six years," Jacob says.

"And we're not married?" Jack asks his eyebrows knitting together in confusion, "How come we never got married?"

Jacob is saved by Sam opens the door to the cabin.

"Sam," Jacob says engulfing her in a hug. He's ashamed to say he's actually crying. She's tense against his arms. He barely notices because he is so overwhelmed with her life.

"Yes, that's your father, and his name is Jacob. You're name is Sam, and you were definitely wrong about my name. Not sir, Jack."

"Sam? Are you sure? It's almost as masculine as Carter," she says to Jack over her father's shoulders at the same time relaxing against him."

Jacob pulls back laughing, "Your full name is Samantha Carter, and I resent you calling your names masculine as I gave both of them to you." Jacob isn't sure what part of that speech made her face fill with that unbelievable pain, but whatever it is he wants to snap it back into his mouth. "Sam…I'm sorry, I was teasing."

"I have your last name?" she asks her father searching his face.

"That's how it usually works, children take the name of their…." He begins.

"Not Jack's last name," she cuts him off.

"We're not married," Jack says putting his arm around her, "and I know we talked about having a quick wedding if we found out we weren't already, but now I'm thinking you might want to do the whole white lace, big wedding thing. I mean we apparently waited six years for it, it would be a shame to get it over with quickly. Especially since it's your first wedding," he stops turns to Jacob, "first right?" he asks pointing to Sam.

Jacob nods.

"Not your first?" Sam asks leveling her eyes on Jack.

"No, Charlie's mom…" Jack begins.

"Jack's ex-wife," Jacob breaks in unable to bear the heartbreak on his daughter's face. He'll have enough of that to contend with soon enough.

They hear Sam breath a huge sigh of relief. She looks at Jack, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to doubt you. You told me that it was over, but…"

"No Sam, totally understandable," he says pulling her close to him, "I couldn't remember how she was out of my life. I couldn't remember…doubt is understandable. I was actually pretty sure you and I were married too."

"No, actually that was me that was sure we were married," she says. Not married, her father just told her she's not married. Suddenly her eyes go wide, and she tries to hide her stomach behind Jack.

"Sam, the nursery kind of gave the where having a baby thing away," Jack says.

It breaks Jacob's heart to see his daughter looking at him with, Holy Hannah, was that fear in her eyes? He tries to ease the pain by telling himself she doesn't actually remember him. That he isn't exactly what's inspiring that fear.

"Come here Sam," he says holding out his hands to her again, "I want to see my grandbaby."

She walks towards him, hands self-consciously around her stomach.

"Hey baby," he says touching her stomach.

_She hears his voice coming from the past, "I was hoping to stick around long enough to see you become an astronaut." She shakes her head. She doesn't want to hear it, she doesn't want him to give up. "Sweetheart, I don't care what it is you do in that mountain, nothing in the world can live up to the chance of actually going to space. Not for you. It's something you're wanted your whole life. And I admit it, I want to see you fulfill your life's dreams before I die."_

"_It's my dream. Doesn't that make it up to me?"_

"_Fathers have dreams, too." She understood that now. Understood about mother's dreams. She wondered about grandparents dreams._

"Sorry, Daddy," she says.

"No, you stop apologizing for this baby," he says. There will be enough of that later. "Let's go home," he says. The crazy thought occurs to him that he should take them to a different home. They didn't know they were from earth, they wouldn't know the difference. He could take them to live with the Tok'ra. He could take them among any number of peaceful races. No one would ever ask questions which would hurt them. No one would ever try to separate his grandbaby's parents.

But he knows it would never work. He knows they would eventually remember. Eventually want to go back. More than that earth might not survive without them.

"Oh, Sam's going to be eating breakfast before we go anywhere," Jack says firmly.

"Jack stop babying me," Sam protests.

"Not babying you, just want to show off my fine cooking, and there is plenty for you Jacob," he says.

"You guys did amazingly well, I mean how much supplies did you have when you arrived?" Jacob asks as they dish out the breakfast.

Sam glances at Jack.

"What?" Jacob asks.

"No supplies," Jack says.

Sam laughs.

"What am I missing?" Jacob says.

"We were naked when we woke up without memory. I…I don't know why," Sam says.

Jacob is silent for a long moment, "I watched you both die."

"Come again?" Jack says.

**His thoughtful friend, blistered, sick dying a hero's gory death (most hero's deaths are gory). Jacob is standing over him with a glowing light coming out of something he's holding in his hand.**

"**Tell Jacob to stop," his friend says.**

"**Why?" Jack asks.**

"**Because I'm ready to move on," his friend says.**

"**You're just giving up?" Jack says. Jack does not give up. **

"**No. No, I'm not giving up, believe me. I think I can do more this way. It's what I want. I have to go now. Everything's gonna be fine. Please, Jack. Tell Jacob to stop."**

"What is the name of my friend…the one who…died?" Jack asks.

"I'm afraid you are going to have to be more specific," Jacob says.

Am I sure I want to remember this life? He asks himself.

"You were trying to fix him with…a glowy hand? But he had me tell you to stop. And he went glowy," she says.

"Daniel," Jacob says.

"And the one with the," Sam says drawing a symbol on her forehead.

"Teal'c," Jacob says.

"He ok?" Jack asks.

Jacob nods.

"Daniel…it wasn't just death was it?" Jack says.

"Just death, what's worse than death?" Sam asks.

**A thick Iraqi accent spouting clichés in bad English. The pain in his knees. The box. Waiting to enter a room his fellow Prisoners of War referred to only with eye twitches and flinches. The waiting…and the horror he is waiting for.**

"Yeah, there is a hell of a lot of things worse than death," Jack says, "But I was talking about things that are better than death. The…glowy part," he prompts.

"Ascension," Jacob says quietly.

_Sam clings to him. "You ascended. I am so glad you ascended. I thought you wouldn't Jack," she is crying, "I thought you would say no."_

_ "Not leaving you, Sam. Not leaving you ever again."_

"Yeah, I think we did that," Jack says.

Sam nods, "We did that, and rejected it as well," Sam says closing her eyes.

"I think the naked and memory swiped thing was our punishment for rejecting what they were offering," Jack says.

"Price," Sam corrects shaking her head.

"Yeah…" he says remembering, "tabula rasas-blank slates." Jacob starts. Jack never knows the technical terms.

"No," Sam says slowly, turning her head from side to side, "ERASED slates," and there is something sad in her eyes.

"But we're writing new words," he says standing behind her and wrapping her arms around me.

"They didn't get it all," she says leaning back into him.

"Not the deep scratches," he says.

"Not the way we loved each other," she says.

"Dad, how long did Sam and I date?" Sam asks.

"Six years," Jack says.

"I didn't say that," Jacob says, "I said you've known each other for six years."

Her face falls, she pulls away from Jack. His heart breaks. They stare at Jacob. He can't tell them.

"Jacob," Jack pleads.

"I'm sorry Jack, before…before you died you weren't together," he says.

"No," Sam says shaking her head, and leaning back against him, "Impossible, the way I loved him. From the moment I opened my eyes I loved him so much!"

"I didn't say you didn't love him before you lost your memories, I said you weren't together."

His stomach churns. He can't look at either of the other people in the room, "Do we…is there someone else for one of us?"

Oh, God, what if she's cheating on someone? How will she explain carrying his baby? How would she explain this to the baby? How will she live without him?

"No, no, you guys are both single. At least as far as I know," Jacob rushes on.

Jack is still studying the wall, "What kept us apart Jacob?"

"Rules, military rules. You are her commanding officer…regulations."

Moral memory, crushing memory…comes upon them both, strongest on Sam. She leaps way from him. "Colonel," she says crying and looking at him with horror.

"No, Sam," he says trying to lock his eyes on her.

Sam dissolves into tears on the bed.

"Jacob, I think you'd better take this one," he says with a concerned look on his face, "I don't think she wants me near her right now."

Jacob walks over to his daughter, rubbing his back, "Sam, you didn't do anything wrong."

"I'm having a baby with my COMMANDING OFFICER for God's sake Dad! It goes against everything I've ever believed, everything I've ever worked for!" she sobs.

"Sammy, you didn't know who he was. You didn't know who you were! You're not going to get in trouble for this. It's not your fault," he coos. He isn't sure if he's lying or not, and frankly he doesn't care.

"How do you know I'm not going to get in trouble?" she demands.

"I won't let them," he says.

"You don't understand Dad…I don't want…I can't…be without him," she whispers.

Jack walks to the bed in a single step, and wraps his arms around her, "When are you going to get this through that genius skull of yours? You are stuck with me. I love you, and I'm not going anywhere."

"Jack, we don't have to tell them whose baby this is. You could get in trouble, and if I never told tell them…" she begins looking at him intensely.

"Oh, not a chance in hell. This is my baby. I love you. I want to announce this from the mountain tops. I want to marry you, and live with you, and be there for you and MY baby," he says.

She surrenders to his hug, "You sure, Sir?"

He grins, she's teasing him now. "You are not going to start calling me Sir now. We'll do what we can to avoid the Court Marshall, and if one of us has to quit it's going to be me," he says.

"No, why?" she asks.

"Because I'm older, less useful, and I called it," he says.

"But I can't be on active duty until after the baby is born," she says.

"I think, you are too important, Sam," he says.

"You are important, too, Jack," she says.

"Not as important," he says.

She shakes her head. Then her eyes turn toward her father and widen. "Oh my God Dad you've got to be furious with me!" she exclaims.

"Why?" he asks.

"I slept with my commanding officer!" she exclaims.

"Like I said you didn't do anything wrong, because you didn't know he was your commanding officer. Besides I like Jack, and for a long time I've thought…I just want you to be happy Sam, and I think I can trust Jack to make you happy." He gives Jack a glare, "He'd better make you happy."

"Yes, sir, I'll try my best," Jacks says. Then he turns grinning to Sam, "Your Dad likes me."

She giggles.

Jacob groans.

"So how far along are you?" Jacob asks his daughter.

"Six months," Sam says.

Jacob freezes, staring at her. "Sam you were pregnant when you were got here?"

Jack's heart stops. What if she was pregnant when she came here? What if this was someone else's baby? What if she remembered the someone else? What if she choose him? What if he had to let her go? Let the baby go?

"No, we've been here six and a half months, Jack show him the calendar!" she exclaims defensively.

"Sweetie, you've only been gone five months and a week. I think I'd remember the day I watched my daughter die," Jacob says.

"This days must have longer on this planet," Sam says. He breaths again. His baby again.

"Of course," he says, "Well that is a relief, for a second there I thought you guys were breaking regulations before you lost your memories."

"You're relieved!" Sam explains, "That's why the baby was so tiny! I was worried it was missing some important nutrient or something!'

"Sammy," he says with a sad smile. He hates that she's had to worry. "Just wait here," he says.

"Let's finish eating while we wait for him to come back," Jack says pulling her up.

She looks at him, "I love you, Jack."

"Love you too," he says.

"No…with the name, I don't think we've ever said it with the name before," she says.

"I love you Samantha Carter," he says.

"Jack," she says carefully, "If I wasn't pregnant…"

"Sam, these past months when I thought I was married to you…they were the best months of my life. At least that I can remember. Granted I can't remember much," he says with a grin, "but I wouldn't trade them for anything.

"Still face court martial for me?" she asks with a wobbly face.

"Yes," he nods.

She grins at him, and he grins back at her, until he sees her dad reappear in the doorway, his grin turns to a face of anger.

"Don't you be coming in here with that ascension light!" Jack exclaims.

Jacob looks at his hand in surprise, "No, Jack…this has nothing to do with ascension. It's a healing device. I…didn't want Sam to have to worry. If there is something wrong with the baby I can heal it, if not she'll know the baby is fine."

"You're sure you won't accidently ascend the baby?" Jack asks suspiciously.

"Positive," Jacob says.

He places his hand on near her stomach, and no light comes on.

"Healthy baby," Jacob says with a smile.

"Good," she says with a sigh, "Now heal Jack's arm," she says lifting up his shirt to reveal a rather nasty scar. Bone needles and homemade twine are not a surgeon's usual implements. So even though Jack recovered the scar still looks bad.

Jacob obediently puts the device above Jack's arm, but it doesn't light up, "Sorry kid, I didn't think it would work. Doesn't do much for scar tissue. It's great with new wounds though. What exactly happened to you Jack?"

"Axe handle in the arm, bled a little, Sam had to stitch me up," Jack says casually.

"He almost died," Sam says honestly.

"She made antibiotics," he says with a grin.

"What did you use for hydrochloric acid?" Jacob asks without missing a beat or showing even a slight amount of surprise.

"There is a citrus fruit on this planet. I lucked out its way more acidic than our citrus fruits on earth," she exclaims.

"Scientists," he mutters with smirk.

"_Oh, this has nothing to do with you being a woman. I __like__ women. I just have a little problem with scientists."_

"You hate scientist," she wails.

"Not my scientist!" he exclaims holding her close.

"Ok, let's go kids," Jacob says after they finish breakfast.

Jacob gets up to leave, and Jack follows her.

"No, Jack, we need to get the dog you made for the baby," Sam says.

He stares at her in open mouthed shock, "Sam, when we get back to earth we are going to be able to buy our kid stuffed animals. Nice stuffed animals."

"But this one was made for him by his father. Every part of it including the tools needed to make it were made for him by his father," she says.

"Ok, we'll take the dog," he says smiling at her as if she was a particularly foolish person.

"And the diapers," Sam prompts.

"Are you kidding me?" he asks, "You are seriously considering putting these scratchy cloth diapers on our kid when we're going back to a world of… I don't know what the world has instead, but I do know it is something."

"I don't necessarily want the baby to wear them, I just want to keep them," she says. He rolls his eyes, she doesn't usually act girly, but when she does she really does. "And the clothes too," she says.

He grins, "You want to take the crib as well?" he asks.

"No, I made the crib," she says as if his suggestion was ridiculous.

"Ok, but if we're being sentimental, let's take the wedding China you made," he says indicating their simple iron dishes.

"Alright, I guess it's moving day," Jacob says.


	25. Day One on Earth

I now have a beta! So you will no longer need to be tortured with my spelling mistakes. A big thank you to BruisedReed.

Day one after returning to earth

"Jacob good to see you," General Hammond says greeting the Tok'ra.

"Nice to see you too George," Jacob waves with a wide grin, "I found something in my travels that might interest you."

Jack exits the space ship. Hammond is too shocked to talk. Sam is still on the ship and feeling nauseous. Morning sickness has been gone for a long time, and she knows this has to do with her worry of what will happen to her and Jack.

Jack looks at Hammond awkwardly.

**"****I remember something. There was a man. He's bald and wears a short sleeve shirt and somehow he's very important to me. I think his name is Homer."**

"Oh, I'm sorry Jack. Forgot about your amnesia. General Hammond," Jacob says.

"Sir," Jack says with a more relaxed smile.

"I'm not quite sure I understand," Hammond says carefully, "Clone?"

"No, original copy," Jack says. Then he starts to wonder if he is really the original. He wonders how decsension works. He figures he must have gotten a new body once the old one died. Did that make him a new person? Did it mean that on some level he was only two weeks older than his kid?

His head was starting to hurt.

"It seems that amnesia is a side effect of decsension," Jacob Carter says. Hammond's face still looks blank, so Jacob continues on, "I think that when they died Sam and Jack ascended to a higher plane of existence like Daniel did a few months back. Only it seems Sam and Jack weren't quite as big fans of the experience, so they chose to re-take human form. "Where is Major Carter?" Hammond asks trying to crane his neck around to see into Jacob's cargo ship.

"Before my daughter walks off that ship I want you to remember that both of them had amnesia on that planet. They woke up not knowing anything about who they were. That includes a complete ignorance of military ranks and military procedures and rules," Jacob says.

Hammond nods.

Sam concentrates on smiling as she climbs out of the ship. Hammonds eyes get large.

"It seems your survival training served you well," he says awkwardly. Her stomach is large enough that there is no doubt, but he still approaches it as if there was doubt.

"I know you're not calling my wife fat," Jack says with a glare, "That happens to be my child."

"Wife?" Hammond sputters.

"Crap! I keep forgetting she isn't my wife," Jack says.

"Well, don't worry about remembering it. I'll be your wife before long," she says smiling at him as she grabs his arm and rubs it.

"Hold it! You're telling me that two of my officers are having a baby together, and are planning on getting married!" Hammond practically shouts.

Both Jacob and Jack protectively step between Hammond and Sam.

"Amnesia, George," Jacob says.

"Would my resignation help?" Jack offers at the same time.

"I do not need protecting," Sam protests elbowing her way between the two men to join in their united front.

"We'll debrief at 0500 hours. I'm guessing it will be a long one. And Jack, don't be offering your resignation up just yet," Hammond says with a sigh. "Go to the infirmary, and get checked out."

Janet does a stunned double take as Sam walks into the room.

"Sam?" she asks with the stunned white face of someone who has just seen a ghost.

"I'm sorry…I remember you are my doctor, my friend…but we can't remember names," she says.

"I'm…Janet…and you died. I…couldn't save you," she stammers.

"I remember, you helped me, you tried to save me. And I'm ok now. Jack and I ascended, and descended," she says.

"Jack, and you," she says looking behind her, and giving the Colonel a smile. She remembers their last minutes. The two of them huddled together, whispering "I love you," to one another. She'd kept everyone else away those last few moments. They'd spent their whole life hiding that truth, she wasn't going to let their cover be blown in the last five minutes.

It is only then that she notices the stomach, "Sam!" she says.

"Yeah, I'm pretty excited for my baby's first check up," Sam says.

"A baby, you're alive, and having a baby," Janet says.

Jack's face looks worried, "I can stay for it right?" he asks Sam.

"Of course," she says smiling at him.

"You and Jack are having a baby?" Janet blurts in shock.

Janet pulls an ultrasound machine out of a back room. Sadly, the machine has been used to examine alien viruses and parasites far more often than it has been to track the growth of a baby. She puts it on her friend's stomach.

"How far along are you?" she asks.

Sam grabs on to Jack's hand desperately. "I'd like to be more certain, but…I don't remember anything from before I ascended. The days were different on the planet…"

She's looking at Jack, and he's smiling at her, trying to calm her, reassure her.

"It's ok honey," Janet says, "It's a question I can answer anyway. Don't know why I asked it except to make conversation."

Sam relaxes.

Janet looks more carefully at the projector, "You're five months along. You must have gotten pregnant not long after you…died."

A wide, relieved grin crosses Jack's face. Sam feels like a moral human being again.

"The baby's health?" Sam asks, "I mean…we were alone on a planet. We tried our best with the diet, but…"

"The baby looks ok, I'd like to do some blood work. But it looks like he is developing fine," she says with a smile.

"He," Jack says.

"You may pretend to be stupid, but you don't miss much Colonel," Janet says, "I didn't ask you if you wanted to know your baby's gender."

"We never talked about it, since it wasn't an option where we were, but…I want to know everything about this baby," she says.

"It's a moot topic now, but it's what I would have picked too," Jack says.

"You ok having a son…after Charlie?" she asks looking up at him.

He nods, "Having a daughter wouldn't have been any easier. A kid is a kid. This kid isn't Charlie. I know that."

"You remember Charlie?" Janet asks sympathetically.

"We remember bits and pieces of a lot of things," Sam says.

They hear the sound running down the hall. They know the sound even before they see Teal'c come around the corner.

"O'Neill, MajorCarter, are you well?" he asks.

"Yeah, we're great T!" O'Neill says.

Teal'c pauses, staring at Sam's stomach. Apparently, whatever gossip vine had gotten him some information had not told him everything.

"MajorCarter…" he says.

"Yeah, we're having a baby," Sam says grinning at him.

"Congratulations MajorCarter," Teal'c says. Then he looks at Jack, "would I be remiss not to offer you congratulations as well?"

"Yeah," Jack says, "It's my kid," he puts his hands on Sam's shoulder.

"I thought my vision would fail me before these events came to pass," Teal'c says.

"What?" Jack asks.

"I think he means 'I never thought I'd see the day,'' Sam explains, "he says thinks like that a lot, and I am never quite sure if he is joking or not."

Teal'c does his Jaffa version of a grin, which is just barely more facial expression than he usually has.

Jack smiles, "He does do that a lot, and I'm pretty sure he's joking every time!"

"Indeed," Teal'c says.

"Now I know he does that a lot," Jack says pointing at him.

"You know we're missing some memories, right?" Sam asks, "Actually most of our memories."

Teal'c nods gravely, "So I was informed."

"But we are remembering more and more all the time," Jack says.

"And we always remembered the important stuff," she says looking up at Jack.

Teal'c is startled to see his teammates talking about their emotions so openly. They never used to talk about the things that were between them. Jack never used to talk about his emotions at all. Teal'c thinks he's going to like the new version of his teammates. They are more human and less warrior. Which he generally wouldn't think of as a good thing, but in this case it also means more happiness.

"Jack, you remember how you kept asking me if I was having cravings, and I kept saying no?" Jack nods, "I was lying, could you get me a banana?" she asks. Jack glances at Janet asking permission to follow Sam's orders. Janet gives a nod. "Wait," Sam says catching his arm, "Maybe a bunch of bananas."

"I was planning on it anyway, Samantha," he says.

"Milk too, Colonel," Janet calls after him.

Jack supposes he should be grateful. He supposes some people would consider the proposal Hammond was offering them a pretty good deal. They were just supposed to pretend like nothing had happened. The same deal, he was beginning to remember, they'd been offered another time they'd lost their memories and entered into a relationship. That time, when they'd stopped being Jonah and Thera and went back to being Jack and Sam they'd taken the deal. They gone back to pretending they didn't love each other. They'd had another two years of that. But he couldn't do that again. He could never do that again.

No one was gettingcourt martialed no one was being punished, no one was losing their jobs. It was just asking him to lose something way more precious than a job.

"I'm sorry George, I know you are trying to help us out of a difficult circumstance here, but I think we should look at my retiring," Jack says.

"I don't think that will be possible," Hammond begins, "I'm sure you've read the frat regulations."

Only about a million times Jack thought. When Sam called him "Colonel" for the first time he'd had a flash of memory of himself pouring over the things, and had the feeling it had happened many a lonely night.

Jack just nods.

"They specifically say that marriage or someone leaving the Air Force doesn't mean punishment doesn't occur," Hammond says.

"I know what they say. You're supposed to pick the lightest punishment most likely to end the "inappropriate or unprofessional relationship", you're supposed to order me to stop dating her, loving her. I'm just telling you now, it isn't going to work, General, so you might as well bring out the big guns. My only request is my career, and not hers."

"Jack!" Sam protests.

Hammond slams his folder shut, "You are not responsible for your actions on that planet, and the relationship had no adverse effect on the Air Force."

"We're not leaving it on this planet this time," Sam says firmly.

Hammond looks away, and sighs, "I can't figure a way to make this legal. If I could I would have told you guys six years ago."

The whole table stared at him open mouthed.

"Oh come on! I'm not blind. I know what was between you since the moment she offered to arm wrestle you on the day you met!" Hammond says.

"George, you said they wouldn't be penalized for their actions on that planet under amnesia?" Jacob says.

"That would only help if we weren't going to have a relationship going forward, which we are," Jack says.

"You should probably refrain from saying that in front of our commanding officer, Sir," Sam says.

"No, it just means you can't have a relationship while you are both in the military in the same chain of command," Jacob says with a grin.

"But leaving the military is not a way to avoid punishment for breaking the fraternization rules," Hammond points out.

"Right, you can't do that to avoid breaking them. But we've established they haven't broken them. So someone should rearrange jobs before they break the rules. Since they haven't broken them since they remembered them." Jacob says with a wide grin.

"Ok, my head is starting to hurt," Jack says.

Sam is grinning, "We found a loophole, Sir. Basically we need to maintain a professional relationship only until one of us becomes a civilian. By the way, I call dibs. Then we can resume a relationship without breaking the frat rules."

"I already called dibs!" he protests.

"No, you called dibs on retiring if we were in trouble. I called dibs on leaving the Air Force to avoid getting into trouble. My job makes more sense as a civilian, besides I'll be doing lab work only for awhile," she says rubbing her stomach.

"But eventually she gets the same job?" Jack asks. "I mean she's still SG-1, right?"

"Would you settle for command of SG-2?" Hammond asks.

"Yes!" Sam exclaims at the same time that Jack says, "No!"

Jack glares at her.

"It's a command, Sir," she says.

"You're my scientist," he protests.

"Well, after my paperwork goes through I'll be your wife," she says.

"I did not hear that people, because my officers are maintaining a perfectly professional relationship until the paperwork is done," Hammond says glaring at them.

"Of course, Sir," Sam says trying to sit up straighter in her chair. It's a little comical with her large abdomen.

"We're still suffering the effects of amnesia, Sir," Jack says grinning at Hammond.

"Dismissed," Hammond says in his gruff Texan accent working hard not to grin back.

"Thank you, Sir, Dad," Sam says, and there is a great deal of meaning behind her words.


	26. Day Two on Earth

Ok, I had to drive across the state to take care of my Grandpa who broke a couple ribs after a fall today. So who knows how my posting will be effected over the next couple of weeks, but I'll try to finish off this story, since we're pretty close to done.

Thanks again to my beta BruisedReed!

Day 2 after returning to earth

Sam opened the door of her on-base quarters to a gentle knock. "Hey kid, how are you this morning?" her Dad asks.

"I'm not sick, Dad, I'm pregnant" she says.

"Ok, how is your memory today then?" he says.

"Good," she says with a smile, "Well, about the same. I've remembered a lot of things being on base. Seeing the people, the places I've known so well, but with Jack I remember other things…less scary things." She looks up at her father with some degree of trepidation. She doesn't actually remember him that well. Her memories of him are an odd contradictory mix of him pushing her, and sweet loving supportive moments. She isn't sure how he's going to react to her being afraid of the Air Force which is her whole life, and his whole life too.

"I can imagine that some of the things you've seen would be scary and confusing," Jacob says.

"I remember good things too," she says closing her eyes, "I remember going to the shooting range with you when I was a kid. I remember hikes, and…" she had meant to only stay on the positive, but it was something she had to know. "Where is Mom?" she asks.

He shuts his eyes, and pulls her into a hug, "Baby your mother…she died."

"I…think I remember. I mean I remember baking cookies, and you coming in crying. I don't remember what you said though. I was a teenager?" she asks.

He nods still holding her in a hug.

"What happened?" Sam asks.

"Car accident," he says.

"So, do I have any other family?" she asks. Suddenly realizing how that sounds she rushes on, "Not that you aren't enough family for me, but…"

"You have a brother, and a sister-in-law, and a niece and nephew," he says.

"Right…" she says slowly, "he's my big brother."

Her dad nods.

"And how is… Mark?" she looks for confirmation which she gets, "going to feel about this?" she says rubbing his stomach.

"He loves you, he's going to be surprised. Particularly since he bawled his eyes out at a funeral five months ago, but he loves you. He's going to be ok with it. Just make sure you tell him sooner rather than later."

"Yeah, I might need his number, I mean I'm sure I have his number, but I don't know where," Sam says.

"Actually you don't have much of anything. Sam, we thought you were dead," and she is touched by how much her father's face still crumbles at that, "I…sold your house. I kept some things, sentimental trinkets, and a few articles of clothes that meant something to me-uniforms and so forth mostly. Anyway, it's all in a storage locker. Here is the key and the address," he says slipping it into her hands, "I meant to stick around longer, and get it for you, and be here for you. But the Tok'ra have called me away," he sighs looking at her, "If you need me to, I can tell them to go to hell."

She hadn't quite remembered who the Tok'ra was or why her father worked for them, but she had figured out he wasn't too happy about the arrangement right now. He probably wanted her to beg him to stay. But she wasn't going to do that.

"I'm fine Dad, really."

"Ok, well I'll be back. And Jack's stuff is in the storage locker too," he says. "He doesn't have much by way of family except his ex-wife, and a sister. Neither of whom he's close to, and neither of whom had security clearance, so I…took care of that for him. I suppose it's fitting now that he's practically my son in law. Oh, and there are some of your old baby things in the storage too. I thought your little one could use some of it," he says grinning from ear to ear.

"Well, we're having a boy, so I don't think we'll be able to use too much of it," she says with a smile rubbing her belly slowly.

"A boy? Really? That's great, Sammy! But you could probably use a lot of your old stuff for your son," Jacob says.

"I suppose you did dress me pretty masculine with a name like Sam," she teases.

"More like gender neutral. But there were a lot of girly things in there as well. Your mother, she used to dress you up in these little fluffy dresses when you were just a baby. You could hardly move in them! But you did look beautiful. She didn't get one of those dresses on you after you learned to say the word "No!" let me tell you! And with my smart little genius girl that word came along pretty young."

"Here is your brother's number," he says writing it down. "I promise I'll come back as soon as I can, and if you'd just say the word I would stay," he said after a moment of silence.

"I'd ask you to, if I needed you too, I really would," she says.

"I love you, Sammy," he says kissing her hairline. He's almost to the door when he turns around, "I know you and Jack wanted to get married as soon as you could. I can certainly understand wanting to be married when your little son enters the world. But, it would mean the world to us if you let your family come. Your brother and his family and I…we'd love to see you get married."

"Of course Dad," she says grinning, "Maybe I'll even wear a girly dress for Mom."

And for the first time since his daughter's funeral-Jacob Carter cried.

"Sam, I got your test results back, and I need to talk to you for a second," Janet says trying to look unalarming. She failed at that, and Sam's knees almost buckled beneath her.

"You have to get Jack…I know we're not supposed to be together until the paperwork goes through, but if there is something wrong with the baby…Jack has to know," she says and her voice is weak, and very unmajorlike.

"No," Janet says soothingly, "There is nothing wrong with your son, or at least nothing we can't fix. You're both going to be fine, come here and I will explain everything," she says.

"Major," Jack says trying hard to give her only a cursory look.

"I'm sorry, Jack," she says closing the door, "I know we're supposed to maintain a professional distance, and the best way to do that would be to maintain actual distance, but I found something out, and I just had to tell you."

He stands up, crosses the room and is about to pull her into a hug when she steps back, and points to the camera. He turns a worried face to her, "What happened?" he asks.

"Nothing…everything is fine…keep that in mind as I tell you. Everything is going to be fine. I'm freaking out over what could have happened," she says.

He nods, but doesn't look as relieved as she wanted him to. It doesn't look like he yet believes her.

"Our blood types…our baby is rh positive, and I'm negative. Which is fine, they give you a shot when you are at about seven months, and within three days of the baby being born, and there is no negative consequences. But if I'd had the baby on that planet," she starts to cry.

He starts toward her, but pulls away giving the cameras a dirty glare, and then starts toward her again.

She shakes her head.

"That camera's caught me giving Daniel more than a few hugs, so it can put up with me giving you one," he says.

And then she's in his arms. They each derive comfort from one another's embrace, touch, smell. There earth smells distantly different from the smell they have grown used to off world. This one has mixes of shampoo and aftershave whereas the off world smell had only lye soap to mask their more natural scents.

"If Dad hadn't found us…our baby might have died when it was born. If we'd had a second baby it definitely would have died," she says.

"But the danger is passed now? The baby is fine for sure? Janet double and triple checked?" he asks.

She nods, "Yes, they just give the shots, and a hundred percent guaranteed it's fine," she says.

He's sobbing, "We would have been out there, and our baby would have died…" but he doesn't finish, because he doesn't want her to know how crazy he is.

"You would have blamed yourself even though it wasn't your fault. Just like you did after Charlie died," she says.

"Charlie's death…" he begins.

"Was an accident," she says firmly, "And the baby and I are not going to die."

"You're not leaving the base until he's born," Jack says, "I want you near an infirmary."

"Jack, labor takes HOURS, and we have three days after to get the shot we'll have plenty of time to get here," she says.

"On second thought I want you to stay in the infirmary, you could get stuck in an elevator or something," he says.

"You need to stop worrying," she says nearly kissing him before she remembered and caught herself.

"But you guys are both ok now?" he asks.

"Yeah," she replies easily, but he sees there is something wrong on her face.

"What?" he asks.

"I'm a little calcium deficient. The baby is ok, apparently my body will rob the calcium from my bones to give it to the baby. It's no big deal," she says.

"You can build up the calcium that you lost right?" he asks.

"Well…sort of, but my chances of having osteoporosis are greater than they would have been any other way," he says.

He makes a horrible face.

"Not your fault Jack, there wasn't any more calcium on that planet besides the bones of animals, and eating those would have caused stomach lacerations which could have caused my own stomach acids to poison me," she says.

He sighs, honestly trying not to feel guilty, "I'd better thank your Dad for saving my son," Jack says.

"That thank you will have to wait, he had to go off world. By the way, apparently he put our stuff in the same storage locker. They sold our houses when they thought we were dead. Dad left me the key. I thought I'd go there today and see what I have. I'm hoping clothes, but even if there are some clothes they aren't going to fit me, so I suppose I should just go shopping."

"Didn't I just tell you, you were not going off base until the baby comes?" he asks.

"And didn't I just tell you, you were nuts? It's bad enough I have to live the same place as I work, I'm not going to spend every moment here," she says.

"So they sold both of our houses, huh?" he says.

She nods, "I guess it just means we get to find a place together."

"That's a lot to do before the baby comes," he says, "find a house, get married, get all the baby stuff and room ready…"

"Easier than building a house from logs, and we did that without a problem. But speaking of marriage, my Dad wants to be there, and wants my brother to be there too," she says looking at him with questing eyes.

"You have a brother?" he asks.

"Yeah, and he has a wife, and two kids. Sounds like you have a sister somewhere too. Dad didn't think you were close to her, but you should probably invite her anyway. And if we're having some people come I think Teal'c, Cassie, Janet and Hammond should come too."

"We can do the whole big wedding thing, you know, I'd be ok with that," he says.

"I know, and if I wanted that, I'd tell you. I think I do want a dress…for my Mom. I guess she always wanted to dress me up in cute little dresses, before I was the height of rebellion against anything girly. Although, I don't know how I'll ever get a dress to fit this whale of a belly," she says sadly.

"You are beautiful," he says and with his eyes looking at her like that there is no way she can doubt the truth of his words.


	27. Day Three on Earth

3rd Day on earth

She had put off this call for as long as she dared. The things her father had kept after her death had included a few photos. Among them were a few of her and her brother. These she had looked at studiously trying to remember as much as she could before she talked to him.

_A nightmare. Not like the nightmares she has now-monstrous reliving of things that are more or less truth. This was a typical nightmare, the kind that all children have. But terrifying enough in its own right. She gets out of bed and goes into her brother's room. _

_She can see his eyes open even in the darkness. He throws a pillow onto his bottom bunk. She jumps on to the bunk, wise enough to avoid the floor near the bed knowing the monsters could grab her from there._

"_I've got the anti-monster shield activated, Sam Bam," Mark says._

"_You'll watch for them anyway?" she asks._

"_I'll always have your back," he says._

_She pulls the covers over her face secure in the knowledge that her big brother would never let anything bad happen to her._

"Hello?" the voice asks. It is familiar, the same voice she heard in the darkness.

"Hi," she says.

She feels hesitation, tension on the phone. "This isn't funny," he says in a weak voice.

"Mark," she says softly.

"Who is this?" he asks accusingly.

"It's Sam Bam," she says.

"My sister is dead," he says in a cold voice.

"Mark, they thought I was dead, but…" she begins.

"It was an open casket funeral!" he explains.

Her Dad might have mentioned that. "The full explanation of that is classified," she says, "but some of the enemy thought plastic surgery and killing an innocent was worth faking my death. My…teammate and I were in a remote part of the world with amnesia."

"This sounds like the plot line to a soap opera," Mark says, but she can tell from his voice that he is already weakening.

"Mom used to love soap operas. But she used to hide it. Just like her love of dark chocolate," Sam says.

There is silence for awhile, "I thought you had amnesia."

"My memories are coming back, when I'm around people I used to know it comes back faster. So since Dad rescued us I've been remembering more and more," she says.

"Sammy?" he is crying.

"Mark," she says with a smile.

"Oh my God are you ok?" he asks.

"Yes, I'm fine. A little bit deficient in calcium, but nothing serious. I will be fine," she says.

"All your memories were gone?" he asks.

"They were, but they are coming back, faster and faster all of the time," she says.

"The guy you were stranded with, is he ok?" Mark asks.

She pauses before she begins to answer.

"What?" Mark says.

"Dad says to just tell you quickly. I don't remember that much of you and me, and what I remember is great, so I should just trust him. That guy I was stranded with…he's my commanding officer, and we're getting married."

"What?" he asks in shock "Isn't that against the rules?"

"Yes, but we didn't remember it," she says.

"Ok, but you're back now. Are you willing to risk your career on this?" he asks.

"It wouldn't be a risk. I'm quitting the Air Force, and he is definitely worth it," she says.

"Quitting the Air Force?" Mark says in shock. "The Air Force is your whole life."

"My job is my life, and I'm not quitting my job. Actually I'll return to doing the same thing I was before. Well, actually I'll get a command. The Air Force, I'll admit it's part of my identity. It's part of who I am. But who I am is changed anyway. I'm going to be wife and mother," she says.

There is silence on the other end of the line, and Sam intakes sharp breath as she realizes she's just let the cat out of the bag without even noticing it. "Did I mention Jack and I are going to have a baby?" she asks.

"No, you left that part out," her brother says, his voice sounding very flat.

She takes a deep breath, "I'm a little over four months pregnant," she says.

"Is the baby all right? I mean you were pregnant in a prison camp?" he asks.

"The baby is fine. Jack and I weren't in a prison camp so much as…as a survivalist type of environment," she says.

"So your boss got bored, knocked you up, and now you're marring him? Don't get me wrong the fact that he's marrying you saves me the trouble of coming down and threatening him, but the way you told it…all backwards, make me think it's something it's not."

_She remembers Mark placing roses on her mother's grave._

_ "They were lucky Mom and Dad," his voice reverting back to puberty's squeakiness with grief. "Not everyone had love like they do. They didn't get it forever, but what they had…"_

_ It took him a year before he'd even say the word 'mom' again, but he's starting to heal."_

"It's not like that Mark. He asked me to marry him…well, we thought we were married when we didn't have our memory. But he'd already asked me to marry him before we knew about the baby. This wasn't because we got bored. This was because we love each other, have loved each other for a long time. We didn't do anything about it because of the military rules. We knew we couldn't. Then we woke up without remembering the reasons we couldn't be together, all we remembered were the reasons we should be together, and there are a lot of them."

"Ok, so I should probably meet this guy," he says begrudgingly, "I'll plan my visit for about the time Dad leaves so someone is always there to take care of you."

"I do not need someone to take care of me!" she exclaims. "Besides, Dad has already left."

"That is just like him! He never thinks about anyone but himself. He can't take off a little bit of time to be with his pregnant single daughter!" Mark exclaims.

_She's won her very first battle. She's eight years old, and the battle was against two bullies, two years older than her, and both boys. They pushed a kindergartner into the mud. Cowards, fighting people half their size. Mark comes along just as they have run off. She's helping the boy wipe mud off his clothes, and hoping her own bleeding lip stops before she gets home._

_ Mark give her one callous look before heading on, "Just 'cause they gave you a boy's name don't make you a boy."_

"I have been taking care of myself for a long time," since mom died she adds in her mind. But she can't say that. She knows Mark wishes he was there for her more back then. But he was sixteen, and sixteen doesn't understand what fourteen really needs. He hadn't understood how badly she'd needed someone to french braid her hair, or check her homework, or bake cookies with her. She'd been grown-up in his eyes, just like he was grown-up in his own. He'd been very wrong on both accounts.

"Sam, you were declared dead. Do you have any money? A place to live?" Mark asks concerned.

"I've been living on base. I don't technically have any money, but Janet loaned me some to shop for clothes. If I needed any for anything else they'd get it for me. In a few days the paperwork will go through declaring me alive, providing me with my savings, and giving me my new job so Jack and I can be together," she says.

"Wait a second," Mark says, "You're not even allowed to be with this guy?"

"He's my commanding officer," she explains rolling her eyes as if he was particularly dense.

"He impregnated you for God sake, Sam! Isn't the Air Force smart enough to figure out you were in a relationship if you're having a child together? My God this is why I hate the military!" Mark rants.

"That isn't why you hate the military," she says, and her words, so painfully truthful, stop him short. "And of course they know, but the no memory thing means we aren't going to be charged. However, if we resumed our relationship after we remembered our rank, we could get into various kinds of trouble. Once I have my new civilian job it will solve all of that."

"Does the military know this is the plan?" Mark asks.

"Not officially, but our Commanding Officer does. Dad sorta went to bat with him for us. You remember George Hammond?" she asks.

"Of course," Mark says, "I always liked the guy. You serve under him?"

"Yeah," she says, "How come I never told you that before?"

There is a long pause, "Sammy…we don't talk as much as we used to."

A knot coils up in her stomach, "I remember your fight with Dad, but I thought that was more or less healed. Does this have to do with that?"

"No…but it's along the same lines. You not being able to tell me what you do for a living," Mark says reluctantly.

"I still won't be able to tell you, probably ever," she says terrified she is going to lose this link to her family.

"I know that. When I thought you were dead…it just doesn't seem to be something worth fighting about anymore. You're new job, is it going to be safer?" he asks.

"A little bit, but not much," she says.

"Listen, Sam, I'm going to fly up there and help for a few days. Just until you are alive again, and this fiancé of yours can look after you, not that you need looking after. But you're pregnant, and…"

She cuts him off, "Mark, I really don't need anyone. If I did I would have asked you. Or I would have taken Dad up on his offer to stay. I'm seriously fine."

"I could still come down and see my sister, raised from the dead," he says playfully, but he knows he won't be quite the same until he's seen her face to face. He is desperate to see her.

"I'd rather you just wait for the wedding. We're trying to get one planned for a soon as we can. It won't be anything fancy. Just twenty or so of our closest family and friends. I want to make sure it's a time when both you and Dad can make it," she says.

"You sure you want to get married so quick?" he asks, and there is a lot more to the question than the words.

"Yeah, I don't want to have to wait another day to start my life with Jack. I love him with my whole heart. Every second I spend away from him is hard for me. Me and him, it's forever, and I can't wait to tell the world that," she says.

"I'm glad to hear that, Sammy, I suppose I can put off the big brother speech about you waiting until you're married since it seems to have turned out ok for you," he says.

"You know we'd be getting married even if it wasn't for the baby," she says.

"I hope so," Mark says.

"I know so," Sam replies. Then she sighs, she knows she has to tell Mark more. "Uh…Jack, was married before."

There is dead silence on the phone

"He got divorced about six years ago," she continues nervously spinning in her seat. She's reminding herself of her husband-to-be with all this fidgeting.

_Daniel is standing before them talking about some ancient god. He's talking unbelievably fast. She knows he does it because he's deathly afraid that if he takes a breath someone will cut him off. He's probably right. However his fast speech makes it impossible to follow even if she's trying to follow along, and she is._

_ A spring hits her in the forehead. She fixes a glare on Jack and he gives her one of those impish grins which made her stomach turn to butterflies even back then when her stomach had no right to have butterflies._

"Jesus Sam! I thought you and you're big belly were breaking up a marriage! Don't you EVER scare me like that again," Mark says.

"No, I've thought about that…what would have happened if we found out we had someone back home. If we came back and found ourselves dating someone, or married to someone. It would have been awful, especially as you started to remember loving the other person. When the memories come back they are just as strong as the first time they happened," she says.

"Has he…remembered his ex-wife yet?" Mark asks delicately.

"Yeah, he could remember her a little on the p…lace where we were found. He couldn't remember what happened between them at first, but he knew it was over," Sam says. She takes a deep breath, "I should probably tell you this just so you know, but you should probably try to avoid Jack ever finding out you know. Jack and his wife had a son…Charlie. Took them forever to have a kid, eight years of trying. He was everything to them, and he died. He shot himself with Jack's gun. It was not Jack's fault. But he blames himself. He still blames himself. That's more or less what happened between Sarah and him, and it…I mean it affects things with this baby, even when he thinks it doesn't."

Sam is terrified. Terrified this brother she can't really remember is an ass. One way or the other she's going to know the character of her brother in a second.

"I can't imagine…if I lost one of my kids it would destroy me," Mark says quietly.

Sam closes her eyes with relief.

"He's so lucky to be getting a second chance," Mark says.

"He's really great with kids. We've run into quite a few over the years, and they trust him in an instant."

"You run into a lot of kids doing…what is it again?" Mark asks.

"Deep space telemetry," she says in a voice that clearly says drop it.

"God, I'm glad you're ok, Sammy," he says.

"I appreciate that Mark," he says.

"And if the wedding date is too far off, I'm going to have to fly up to see my little sister, and the guy she thinks is good enough for her," he teases.

"You're going to love Jack," she says.

"You call me if you need anything. Money, an ear to listen to, something else I can't think of," Mark says.

"Someone to watch the monsters while I sleep," she says.

"Yeah…what do you military types say? I've got your six?"


	28. Day Six on Earth

Thanks again to BruisedReed for the awesome beta work!

Day 6 on earth

"Sam!" he exclaims bursting into her lab, "You are officially a civilian as of…" he glances at his watch, "now!" he pulls her into a kiss which includes a swoop to the floor.

She giggles as he lets her up.

"Just like the first time," he says.

"I'm pretty sure we've never done that before," she says.

"Really? Because I remember it. But then again you'd think they would have known if we were together," he says confused.

"Maybe it was just your fantasy," she says.

"I'm a lot more creative than that Dr. Carter," he says. Then his face grows serious and he gets gets down on one knee, displaying a ring, "Will you marry me Samantha?"

"I already said yes to that," she says pulling him up, "Of course I'll marry you. You didn't have to waste money on a ring. Hey, how did you buy a ring? Are we alive again? With paperwork? With money?"

"Well, as of today, but Teal'c let me borrow money for this. He's loaded you know. Man never leaves the base except to buy science fiction movies," Jack says smirking, "Actually he helped me pick them out, 'should you not get MajorCarter the one with many sides?' he asks me."

"The man has taste," she says slipping the ring onto her finger, "Thank you, Jack. About our wedding plans, my father and brother have agreed on three possible days. I want your sister to pick."

"What?" he says.

"Call your sister Jack, tell her you aren't dead," Sam says.

"Ugh!' he exclaims, "I don't remember my sister. I do not have one single memory of this woman!"

"If you talked to her you might gain some," she says cheerfully.

"Or I could get into the middle of some argument I don't understand," he says, "for all I know there is a good reason we're not close."

"Teal'c gave me her number," Sam says.

"How the hell did Teal'c get my sister's number?" he asks.

"I don't know, he might have said something about Jaffa spy network, or having met her at your funeral," she says.

He glares at her.

"Call her or I will," she says.

"You wouldn't," he says.

She pulls out a phone and begins dialing. He pretends to try to wrestle the phone from her. It's only a mock battle, because he knows a real fight between the two would result in a trip to the infirmary, and he certainly isn't going to risk injuring his baby.

"Hello," he hears a voice, and it is familiar.

**"No girls aloud," he shouts down from his tree house.**

** "You are so immature Jack," his teenage sister shouts up, "Mom said it's time for supper."**

** "Tell her I'll come in once I defeated Red Beard," Jack responds.**

** "Good luck with that one," she retorts retreating into the house.**

"Hello, is this Jessica Johnson?" Sam asks politely. He lets her go.

"Yes, who is this?" the voice on the phone asks.

"Are you Jack O'Neill's sister?" she asks.

The voice pauses, "Is the Air Force finally going to tell me how my brother died?" and he can hear the pain in her voice.

"I'm calling to tell you that Jack isn't dead," Sam says.

"This isn't funny," she says with a strained voice, "I was at his funeral. I saw him."

"I know, and the circumstances around this are still classified, but…that wasn't really him," Sam says.

"You should find other things to do than play with people's emotions," and the phone is almost on the cradle when Jack takes the phone from Sam and says, "Jessie!"

"Oh, my God, Jack!" she says.

**"So the parents are all asleep?" he asks sitting down next to Jessica, she hands him a beer she'd had waiting for him.**

** "Probably exhausted from grilling me on my divorce, and you and Sarah on your six years of childless marriage," Jess replies. **

** "You know Sarah and I have tried to have kids…that's why I hate this interrogation. It kills her," he says softly.**

** "God Jack, tell them that! They'd probably let up. There isn't much chance of them getting off my back," she mutters.**

** He takes a sip of his beer contemplating, "If it's any consolation I always thought Richard was a dick."**

** "Next time Jack, warn me," she mutters.**

"Yeah, I have to warn you, Jess, I don't remember everything…or much of anything," he says.

"But you're alive? I mean it's really you?" she asks eagerly.

"Yeah, maybe you could fly down and see me in person for my wedding," Jack says.

There is dead silence on the phone, "Did I just hear you right?"

"Yeah," he says, "I'm getting married," Jacks says.

"Wow! To whom?" she says.

"Sam…ah, you just heard her on the phone a little bit ago, and we're…we're having a baby too" he says.

"Really? Put her on again," Jess says.

"I'm not sure I like this idea," he says warily.

"Come on you big chicken," Jess coaxes.

He hands the phone over obediently, if somewhat reluctantly. "Hey, you're marrying my baby brother," Jessica states.

"Yeah," Sam says.

"Congratulations, and how far along are you?" Jessie asks.

"Five months," Sam says.

"Holy crap! You must have found out about the time he went missing. I didn't see you at the funeral. You should have told me, I would have been there…" she begins.

"I appreciate that but, Jack and I were missing together," she says giving him a smile which he returns.

"Ah, desert island baby," Jessie says.

"Something like that, but we were in love before the baby," Sam says.

"Usually happens that way," Jess replies dryly. Then she grows serious, "Listen, there is something I have to tell you, and I don't know if Jack has already told you or…" she starts.

"I know about Charlie," Sam says softly.

Jack's head jerks, "she warning you not to leave me alone with the kid?" he asks bitterly.

**"Your sister wants to talk to you Jack," Sarah says trying to hand him the phone.**

** He doesn't move.**

** "Damn it Jack! Move! Do something! Talk to your family!" Sarah says throwing the phone on the bed and marching out of Charlie's room.**

** He doesn't want to talk to her. He knows she'll blame him.**

Sam nods to the voice on the phone, and holds the phone to his ear.

"Charlie was not your fault. I would have told you that then if you would have taken my calls. You are the ONLY person who thinks Charlie's death was your fault," Jess says. It does him good to hear it, even though he doesn't believe it.

"Sarah did," he says softly.

"She certainly did not. When you wouldn't talk to me, I talked to her. She NEVER blamed you Jack. You should have talked to her. You should have talked to anyone, but you were so closed up. That's why I had to make sure this new wife knew, because I can't trust you to talk to her. And having a new kid, it's going to affect you in a million ways. She has to know that. To understand that you aren't going to just be happy excited all the time. That it won't mean you don't love this kid. That it really shows how much you love it."

He is crying, and trying to hide the sound of it from his sister, the sight of it from his fiancé. Sam walks behind him, and wraps her arms around him nestling into his neck.

"I am happy and excited," Jack says.

"That's good, because you are a really great father. Now when is this wedding?" she asks.

"Sam wants you to choose between three dates," Jack says.

"Tell her it's going to be informal, with just a few people," Sam says onto the phone.

Jack turns to her with a bemused look, "I'll let you talk to her again if you promise not to talk about me."

"You make a hard deal," Sam says, "but I'll take it," and she snatches the phone from Jack.


	29. Two Months On Earth

Thanks again to BruisedReed for the awesome beta work!

Two months later

Sam is pretty surprised, and eternally grateful that they make dresses to fit people who are seven months pregnant. She smiles at the room full of her family, some of whom are related to her by blood, and some of whom are not. She tries hard not to think about the ones who are not here to share the day with them-Daniel, her mom, Charlie, but focuses her face on those that are.

Their memories have come back much faster since their arrival back on earth. In fact, most of their memories are now back. Every once in a while they begin to think that all of their memories are back, and then one springs upon them out of the blue.

She has a lot of bad memories to be sure, but she has enough good to balance them out.

"You ready for this kid?" her dad asks her, taking her arm.

"Definitely, Dad," she says focused on the face of Jack O'Neill before the altar. His eyes focused on her, those deep eyes which she loves.

Do you promise to love…

_**Always have**_

…cherish…

_**How could you not cherish every moment when each and every one of them could be your last one with them.**_

…honor…

_**It is easy to honor one who is so honorable**_

….and obey…

_Ha! No more!___**Never again.**

…through sickness and health…

_**Been there, done that.**_

…good times, and bad times….

_**And all the times in between**_

….for richer and poorer…

_**I think naked and without belongings is just about as poor as you can get, so this shouldn't be a problem**_

…as long as you both shall live?

_**And maybe even after that.**_

_**We do.**_

I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.

And he does.

"You aren't going to carry me over the threshold!" she exclaims as he grabs her knees later that night.

He fakes confusion, "Why not?" he asks.

"First of all we've been living in this house for a week all ready, secondly because you carried me over the threshold of the cabin we lived in on P3X-942, and third and most importantly I'm huge enough to be declared my own continent," she protests.

"So you admit our home on P3X-942 was in fact a cabin not a hovel," he says lifting her ever so gently.

"No! Your knees!" she exclaims. When that has no effect she adds, "You're going to drop us!"

He set her down gently on the other side, "I love the way you do that," he says.

"What?" she asks.

"Talk about the baby like it is already here," he says

"And just what do you think this is?" she asks putting her hand over her rapidly expanding stomach.

"I know, but that's the point. Most people refer to an unborn baby like a piece of furniture or an animal. Actually, a lot of people refer to a six year old like that. You talk about the baby like it's your equal," he says, "You have no idea how much I love that. How much I love you," he says kissing her.

"You do that too," she says, "Hey, I thought of the perfect name, and this time there is no way you can reject it!" she says excitedly.

He rolls his eyes, he has been dead set against all of her suggestions so far. Most of them were too strange and new. He believed in simple strong names for boys, things that wouldn't get them teased. She would roll her eyes at his suggestions as well saying, "I'm not going to have my son share his name with half the planet, Jack!"

"Ok, what have you got?" he asks.

"Jackson," she says proudly.

He stares at her for a long moment hoping he'll see the grin she makes when she's trying hard not to laugh. It doesn't appear. "No," he says.

"Come on, it's perfect! I mean he is Jack's son, and it would also be like we're naming him after Daniel. You KNOW how honored he would be if he was still alive," she protests.

"You are not seriously going to use my missing Daniel to sell me on that name, are you? We might as well name him 'offspring of the O'Neill's' or," and as the thought occurs to him he can't help but let a little giggle out, "Samson."

"Sure, we can go ahead and name him Samson, and get him a little set of baby dumbbells, and let his hair grow out to hippie lengths…" she begins.

"I resent that, I was a hippie," he says.

"You were not a hippie, Sir! You fought in Vietnam!" she says. Then she pauses, "I guess I didn't really know you then did I? I mean even with my memory back there is still so much of your life I don't know."

"So, I'll just have to tell you," he says, "and I wasn't really a hippie. Man…in the days of the hippies you were…" he begins.

"Don't do the math, Jack," she says, "Please don't do that math."

"You called me Sir before, I thought you were finally over that, and I've done the math," he says.

"So Jackson?" she asks.

"How about Carter, since you're done with that name now Mrs. O'Neill?" he asks.

"If we're going with a president theme why not Millard," she says sarcastically.

"Fillmore would be worse," he says laughing.

"Ok, let's forget baby names for now," she says, "mocking each other's suggestions isn't what I'd call helpful, besides it is our wedding night."

"We had a five month honeymoon," he says.

"You have a strange definition of vacation," she says.

"Close as you've come to a vacation," he says. Her eyes look injured, and he tries to back pedal, "Sam, I didn't mean…"

"No Jack, you're right…you were right anyway. It's just that lately I've been trying…I mean really trying," she says.

"No, Sam, since we've gotten back you haven't been such a workaholic. I just figured…I mean I figured this kid had you exhausted," he says touching her belly.

She looks away, just like she always does right before she says something that's important, that's hard for her, "When I was growing up my Dad was always gone. We were second place. I…I never want my baby, or my husband," she says with a wide grin remembering she could call him that now, "to wonder if they are first or second place. First place, always," she says.

"Sam, you can't put me before the whole galaxy," he says concerned.

"Notice you didn't say anything about the baby," she says.

"I don't mind you putting Jackson before the galaxy," he says.

"What?" she says.

"Oh come on, like we didn't already know you were going to win the name the kid argument," he says.

"Ok, now I'm serious, no more baby talk, it's our wedding night," she says.

"Are you sure? Because Teal'c was telling me about how they raise children in Chulak, and it's really quite humorous," he says.

Her smile fades, "Don't go reminding me of our missing anthropologist," she says.


	30. Four Months on Earth

Thanks again to BruisedReed for the awesome beta work!

Four Months on Earth

She rubs her tight stomach, and debates driving herself to the hospital. She rejects this idea for the same reason she didn't amputate his arm when he had blood poisoning: he would be furious.

"Jack," she whispers tapping him.

It's always a little dangerous to wake Jack, but she knows this by now. She's known this for a long time. He launches forward to tackle her in the moment before he becomes fully awake, but she is already across the room.

"Jeeze Sam," he says as he wakes up, "I'm sorry, you ok?"

"Yeah, you didn't touch me. I'm sorry to wake you, but…I'm in labor," she says.

"Sorry to wake me?" he says incredulously.

"I considered driving myself," she says.

"What!" he says.

"Honestly, I figured you'd flip out," she says.

"Sam, you've seen me in a lot of emergency situations, have I ever freaked out?" he asks.

"This coming from the man who threatened to make me stay on base the whole time I was pregnant," she says.

"Hey, we've got three days from the time that baby comes out of you before anyone is in danger," he says the picture of calm as he gets dressed.

"Jack," she says.

"Yeah?" he asks.

"You have one of those shots in the fridge don't you?" she says.

"Be prepared," he says with a shrug.

"Sweetie, you are in the Air Force not the boy scouts. Does Janet know you stole her shot?" she asks.

"No, we should probably bring it along," he says with a grin.


	31. The Next Day

Thanks again to BruisedReed for the awesome beta work!

The next day

She is on the edge of wakefulness and sleep when she hears a nurse whisper, "Did you hear Jackson's coming in today?"

She couldn't hear most of what the other nurse said, but she caught the word, "Dead".

Sam jumps out of the hospital bed, "What's wrong with him? Where is my son?"

"Honey, just relax," the nurse says.

"Where is my son!" she screams.

"Your husband took him to the cafeteria," the nurse says.

"He shouldn't do that with a newborn! Idiot! Is it the rh negative thing? I thought Janet cured that," Sam says totally panicked.

"You son is fine," the nurse says confused.

"I heard you talking about Jackson!" she exclaims.

"Daniel Jackson," the nurse clarifies.

"He's dead," Sam says in shock.

"Well, you people have a way of coming back from the dead," the nurse says.

Sam leaves the infirmary, despite the nurses calling her back.

"Hey, Jackson Teal'c," she says picking up her tiny son. She just can't get over how tiny he is.

"Sam, you just had a baby, you shouldn't be up," Jack says concerned.

"Yeah well you shouldn't be showing a brand new baby off to a bunch of Marines," she replies dryly, as the Marines mock offense "But I came to tell you Daniel is back."

"Way to bury the lead, Sam!" he says standing up. "You go meet him in the gate room, I'll get Teal'c and meet you there," he says with a wide grin. He starts to walk away before he says, "You sure you're up for the reunion, because I could send him into the infirmary?"

"SG-1 meets each other at the gate," she says.

As soon as he walks through the gate she recognizes everything about him. She recognizes his face, the one she's been seeing in her memories. She recognizes the self-conscious way he holds his body. Most of all she recognizes that confused startled look she saw on her own face and Jack's face a million times.

"Daniel," she says with a smile, "I am Sam, your teammate."

He smiles back at her, "First one who introduces themselves."

"Yeah, well I recently recovered from my own bout with amnesia," she says, "Ok, if I hug you?"

He nods, "I don't remember you, but I remember liking you," Daniel says.

"The feelings last much longer than the memories," she says pulling him into a hug.

"And who is this?" Daniel asks.

"This is my brand new son," she says grinning like only a new mother can, "Less than a day old so you are one of the first to meet him. It's fitting, because he's named after you."

"Yeah?" Daniel looks genuinely surprised.

"Well, it's also a joke because his Dad is Jack, your best friend, and also a member of your team, so he's Jack's son, but mostly named after you," she says with a smile.

"Not sure why you'd do that," he says still somewhat awed by his namesake.

"Well in case you never noticed you are pretty amazing," she says with a smile.

"I guess I don't remember that. I hope I didn't set the standards too high for myself," he says wistfully.

"I'll have to get you copies of the nice things Jack said about you during the several funerals we've had for you. Until then I'll just have to tell you that losing you was one of the hardest things I have ever been through. You were—you are—brilliant. One of the most caring, passionate… You're the type of person who would give his own life for someone he doesn't even know. If you had one fault, it was that you wanted to save people so badly, y—you wanted to help people so much, that it tore you apart when you couldn't make a difference," she says.

"Didn't you say you have amnesia?" he asks trying to make it a joke. He and Jack were more alike than either of them would like to admit.

"Most of my memory is back now, maybe all of it," she says, "Certainly enough to know you're pretty amazing."

"Sam…I don't remember…do I have family?" he asks.

"Daniel," she says with a face that clearly showed she wished he never asked, "Your parents died when you were little. You do have a Grandfather, but he's…on some sort of mission which results in him being sort of….off world. SG-1 is family. Jack, Jackson, and I…we're really family now, but that doesn't make you and Teal'c and less family," she says.

"Daniel!" Jack says pulling him in for a hug.

Teal'c gives Sam a look which is the Jaffa equivalent of a Janet Frasier glare, "MajorO'Neill it is a custom among Jaffa for a new mother to remain in bed for several days after delivering her offspring, I believe the Tau'ri have a similar custom."

"Come on Teal'c! It's not every day that your friends come back from the dead," Sam protests.

Teal'c cocks his head at her, "It is not?" he asks.


	32. Three Years Later

Thanks again to BruisedReed for the awesome beta work!

Three years later

It had been years since he had regained a memory he'd forgotten. Like a flash it appears to him as Daniel clinks the neck of his beer bottle against his own. Usually when this happens Daniel says a toast in some other language, this time it's actually English.

**"Cheers," Daniel says somewhat sarcastically as the beer bottles clinked together.**

** "Daniel you'd better speed up, our goal was to kill the brain cells that contain certain memories," Jack says.**

** "I guess I just use more of my brain than you do," Daniel says.**

** Then they are silent, because Jack doesn't know what to say.**

** "Do you love her?" Daniel suddenly asks.**

** Jack practically shouts at Daniel, "Who? That slimy snake ass, Hathor? Hell no!"**

** "No!" Daniel says offended, "I just thought….I mean what Hathor did to me, was worse, because I loved Sha're. I know she didn't do to you what she did to me, but…you listened to Hathor instead of Sam, and it would be worse if you loved her."**

** Jack stares at his drink slowly, spinning the beer in the bottle around and around. "Daniel, I know you don't know much about the military," he begins.**

** "I'm not asking if you are dating her, I'm asking if you love her," Daniel says.**

** "You need to drink more," Jack says.**

** "I think you've answered my question," Daniel says with a grin.**

** "What Hathor did to you wasn't betraying your wife, because you didn't have a choice," Jack says.**

** "Jack…" Daniel says.**

** "Would you blame Sha're if Apophus…" Jack begins, but Daniel's shaking of his head stops him, "Jesus, Daniel. I shouldn't have opened up that can of worms."**

** "You think that's the first time that particularly painful thought has crossed my mind?" Daniel says quietly. Then he looks at his friend, "If it wasn't for the Air Force…."**

** "Danny boy, I've got to retire someday, and when I do…" Jack replies with a touch of a smile on his face for the first time since he'd met Hathor. "And someday, we're going to get that wife of yours back," Jack adds.**

** "To someday," Daniel says, clinking his bottle to Jack's again.**

Jack pushes away the guilt of unfulfilled promise. Things hadn't worked out like he'd wanted them too, but they had worked out. "Daddy," Jackson says running up to his father, "Come play!"

"I'm being called away," Jack says with a grin.

"Tell my wife to come sit down and rest on your way over," Daniel says.

"Now look at this, when we first met you were talking me out of suicide missions, and now you're talking me into them," he says.

He allows his son to pull him into the yard. When they are near Sam and Vala he lifts Jackson onto his head so he will stop long enough for him to talk with the girls.

"Your husband thinks you should sit down," he says.

"Did you tell him that a being a doctor of old stuff and languages doesn't qualify him to boss around his wife on medical matters?" Vala retorts.

"You could go tell him," Jack suggests, "But I think he's just worried about the baby." Jack had long ago learned that saying things were done for the sake of the baby was a great way to get a pregnant woman to agree with almost any opinion. Vala smiles, and waddles toward her husband.

Sam looks at her husband with that grin that lets him know she's hiding something. "Maybe I should go sit down to," she says her grin spreading, "You know…for the baby's sake."

"Baby, Sam?" he asks.

"Yeah, I just found out," she sputters. And with their son still on his shoulders he gives her a kiss.


End file.
